Belgian Grand Prix: Qualification – All the news of Formula 1 2020

Cloudy. Dry. Air + 16C, track + 24C

After the cancellation of the Canadian Grand Prix, the Spa stage became the first during the season, where the cars were adjusted to a small downforce. In cool weather and low downforce, not everyone managed to get the tires working, which affected the balance of forces. These problems hit Ferrari more seriously: in practice, the Scuderia was inferior even to its customers’ teams that used the same engines.

For the Belgian stage, the caretakers traditionally upgraded the power plants. The stage was just the seventh, the limit has not yet been exceeded, so there were no fines for replacing normal engines in a race at Spa.

The training went without incident. On Friday morning Bottas led the protocol, Verstappen led the day and on Saturday morning Hamilton drove the fastest lap.

Pirelli used to bring the harder compounds to the Spa, but this year they chose a step softer tires. The roles of Hard, Medium and Soft were the compositions C2, C3 and C4. On a long track, the medium tires gave way to the soft ones for about a second per lap.

In the first session everyone used Soft, limiting themselves to one fast lap each time, then the tires lost efficiency.

Kevin Magnussen crashed into the gravel on a fast lap but was able to get back on track.

Hamilton showed the best time: 1: 42.323, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Giovinazzi, Latifi and Magnussen abandoned the subsequent fight.

In the second session Drivers Mercedes, Racing Point and Max Verstappen made their first attempt on Medium to start the race with this lineup.

On the first try, Hamilton led the protocol – 1: 42.014. The Mercedes and Max drivers managed to show an excellent time on Medium, guaranteeing access to the final, while the Racing Point drivers failed to reach the top ten and switched to Soft. George Russell did not complete the circle.

Returning to the pits, Daniel Riccardo complained of problems with the brake-for-dishes, and did not leave for the second attempt.

On the second attempt, Hamilton’s result remained the best. Kvyat, Gasli, Leclair, Vettel and Russell abandoned the subsequent fight. For the first time this season, Kvyat was ahead of his teammate.

Five teams made the final: Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, McLaren, Renault and Racing Point.

In the end everything went to Soft. On the first attempt, Hamilton led the protocol with 1: 41.451. Bottas wasted half a second, making a mistake on a fast loop.

Pérez and Stroll gave up the second attempt; there were no new sets of soft tires left, the rest kept fighting. Hamilton improved – 1: 41.252 – a new all-time record.

Lewis Hamilton won the Spa classification, earning his fifth pole of the season and 93rd of his career. The Briton dedicated the victory to the memory of the late actor Chadwick Boseman.

Having lost half a second, Valtteri Bottas showed the second time: tomorrow, the Mercedes drivers will occupy the entire front row of the starting field for the fifth time this season.

Verstappen and Riccardo start from the second row, Elbon and Windows from the third row. Kvyat will start the race 11th.

Qualification results