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Here you can find Sunday’s qualifying and starting grid results.
A year ago, Ferrari walked away from everyone at Spa: front row of the grid in qualifying, first Formula 1 victory for Charles Leclerc a day later. Back then, however, good performance was still achieved with the “doped” motor, which after cleaning has now almost turned into an air pump. Now the Reds are doing badly.
Ferrari enters GP 998 (Sunday, 3:10 pm) with a poor starting position. It was already indicated in training, now it is a fact: both Leclerc (13th) and Vettel (14th) get stuck in Q2 and lose the fight for the first five rows. For the first time this season.
As a reminder: last year Leclerc won ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Vettel. In 2018, Vettel won in a Ferrari. Ferrari is miles away from those results.
Hamilton dedicates Pole’s late friend
For the fifth time in race 7 and for the 93rd time overall, World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton takes pole in qualifying. He drives an impressive qualifying, clearly relegating his teammate Bottas to second place. Mercedes will start on Sunday from the front row of the grid. On Sunday, Hamilton chases his 89th victory: Michael Schumacher’s record is 91 GP victories.
Pole Hamilton puts it in perspective. Because he is also concerned about other things: “Today it was not easy for me to get into the booth. Because when I woke up I was shocked by the report of the death of my American friend Chadwick Boseman. That hit me hard. In the car things went better from one lap to the next. now I have another pole position. No more. “The American actor has passed away with only 43 years.
Bottas isn’t giving up yet
His teammate Bottas, who is 43 points behind the Briton, is combative: “The car was fine, but you should never make the slightest mistake against Lewis. On Sunday I will give it my all, overtaking is easier here than in other places. The dream of the World Cup lives until the math says no! “
End of the game after this classification
With this qualification, the «party mode» comes to an end (see report of the 3rd training session). Next week at Monza, the engine should be adjusted the same throughout the week. In the classification, Mercedes and company can no longer boast of more power.
For years Red Bull had been upset that the Silver Arrows suddenly had even more power on Saturday. It’s weird that so many teams apparently knew the “trick” but didn’t use it themselves. It was probably too expensive …
Verstappen tackles the rain
And how are things going with the Mercedes hunters? Max Verstappen, who was the only one to break Mercedes’ dominance with a victory in Great Britain this season, starts third.
The Flying Dutchman on Saturday’s qualifying: “One good day, it’s a shame I missed the front row by 0.015 seconds. It will be difficult to chase Hamilton in the race. But there will be good fights up there for sure. And who knows what the weather will be like. So a lot is possible in the wet. “
Racing-Point, which is currently third in the World Championship despite deducting 15 points, does not take the first places in this classification through Pérez (8th) and Stroll (9th).
Weather played in qualifying
Rain was announced for the race weekend. During the third training session on Saturday afternoon, the teams were already upset by brief periods of rain. Classification starts in dry weather. It remains so. It could still rain on Sunday.
Alpha-Sauber gets stuck
Thanks to Kimi Räikkönen, the Hinwil racing team survived the first qualifying round two weeks ago in Barcelona. Now he’s back in the old waters: both cars fail in the first qualifying round.
Räikkönen is less than a tenth of a second away from snatching Leclerc’s spot in Q2. He finished 16th, Giovinazzi 18th. In the stable match, the 2007 world champion (in a Ferrari) reduced Giovinazzi to 3: 4.
Schumi junior before debuting with Hinwilern
Formula 2 driver Mick Schumacher (21, Prema Racing) can look forward to entering the cockpit of Alfa-Sauber this season.
Alpha-Sauber team boss talks to “Sky” in Saturday’s qualifying about the son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher (51): “Mick is doing a good job, he will have a chance to win Formula 1 sooner the end of the season. ” Season to taste. Then we will see. “
Magnussen on the gravel bed
Haas Ferrari team’s Kevin Magnussen exaggerates the time chase in Q1. The Dane, who scored the only Haas point of the current season in Hungary in 10th position so far, ends up in the gravel trap when time runs out and can barely recover.
So it goes
On Sunday at 15:10 hours, the Formula 1 field will start the seventh GP of the season. Hamilton has won four times so far in 2020, Bottas two and Verstappen one. Who will triumph in Belgium?
