Championship leader Kimi Antonelli outpaced his rivals Saturday when he took pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. The teenage Mercedes driver blazed to a best time of 1 minute 44.361 seconds, 0.317sec ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, while Lando Norris was third fastest in his McLaren but will start with a 10-place grid penalty. As he crossed the line after crushing his rivals with a ferocious last lap, the pit reminded Antonelli that it was his father's birthday. "Happy birthday, Dad!" he responded. In his on-track interview, the Italian said he was happy with his display. "It was not a very straightforward session. The track changed a lot," AFP quoted Antonelli as saying. "The last lap was good. It was a nice lap. It was very clean, so very happy. "Tomorrow is another day, with Max starting next to me it will be important to get a good start and be ahead into Turn 5." In a session briefly red-flagged because of gravel on the track, Antonelli's team-mate George Russell was fourth fastest and will share the second row with Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. The second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton was next, followed by Oscar Piastri in a McLaren. Verstappen was able to grab Isack Hadjar's slipstream for his final lap. "It was definitely helping me, otherwise I would not be standing here, I would be P6 or something," the Dutchman said. "Isack did a really good job. Tomorrow I will be looking in my mirrors but today was a decent result." Like Norris, Hadjar, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll all start tomorrow with grid penalties for power unit changes.
