Formula One 2026: Belgian Grand Prix qualifying – live

Key events37m agoPreambleAnd here, with 10 minutes to go, are the constructors:1 Mercedes 333pts 2 Ferrari 255 3 McLaren 179 4 Red Bull 128 5 Alpine 60 6 Racing Bulls 59 7 Haas 21 8 Williams 11 9 Audi 6 10 Aston Martin 1 11 Cadillac 0Here are the drivers’ standings going into the weekend:1 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 179pts 2 George Russell Mercedes 154 3 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 147 4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 108 5 Lando Norris McLaren 97 6 Oscar Piastri McLaren 82 7 Max Verstappen Red Bull 76 8 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 52 9 Pierre Gasly Alpine 42 10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 39 11 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 20 12 Oliver Bearman Haas 18 13 Franco Colapinto Alpine 18 14 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 6 15 Carlos Sainz Williams 6 16 Alexander Albon Williams 5 17 Esteban Ocon Haas 3 18 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1Aside from Hamilton’s crash, did things change in FP3? Antonelli fastest again, but Russell at least came up to fourth. Norris, facing that 10-place penalty, at least looks in good shape to minimise its effects.1 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:45.9902 Lando Norris McLaren +0.139s3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.148s4 George Russell Mercedes +0.367s5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.392s6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.760s7 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.795s8 Nico Hülkenberg Audi +0.934s9 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +1.059s10 Isack Hadjar Red Bull +1.106s11 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +1.186s 12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.700s 13 Franco Colapinto Alpine +1.914s 14 Oliver Bearman Haas +1.930s 15 Pierre Gasly Alpine +1.959s 16 Alexander Albon Williams +2.000s 17 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +2.654s 18 Carlos Sainz Williams +2.702s 19 Esteban Ocon Haas +2.740s 20 Sergio Pérez Cadillac +3.000s 21 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +4.165s 22 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +4.641sGiles Richards reported on Friday that George Russell is not fooled by his closing the gap at the top, as it has been based on Kimi Antonelli’s problems rather than him finding things easier: double quotation mark“I know exactly what I need to do,” he said. “But going out and then achieving it when I’ve driven for 20 years in a certain way – and even more so, it’s been working for 20 years … Now suddenly it’s working 50% of the time but 50% of the other time it’s not working. Trying to recognise, is it going to work this weekend my normal way? Or do I need to adapt my approach? “When I’ve performed at my very best I’ve just been performing subconsciously, not even been thinking about driving and now you’re having to think, trying to make these new techniques become subconscious techniques. That is the challenge.” Coming eighth in FP1 indicates the continuing difficulties.Focus, George. Focus. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/APAnd here’s FP2, with Russell still in eighth but Antonelli leaping up from sixth to first:1 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:45.9442 Lando Norris McLaren +0.190s3 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.472s4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.747s5 Isack Hadjar Red Bull +0.770s6 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.982s7 Franco Colapinto Alpine +1.203s8 George Russell Mercedes +1.285s9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +1.350s10 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.490s11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +1.524s 12 Oliver Bearman Haas +1.848s 13 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +2.008s 14 Esteban Ocon Haas +2.014s 15 Alexander Albon Williams +2.075s 16 Carlos Sainz Williams +2.312s 17 Nico Hülkenberg Audi +2.389s 18 Pierre Gasly Alpine +3.011s 19 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +3.255s 20 Sergio Pérez Cadillac +3.652s 21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +5.187s 22 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +5.474sWhat happened in Friday’s free practice? Well, as Giles Richards reported: double quotation mark… in first practice Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was quickest, edging out the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Leclerc, with Antonelli in sixth and Russell in eighth. Antonelli was on top in the second session, almost two-tenths clear of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who has a 10-place grid penalty for the race but Russell once more struggled to dial in his car, finishing in eighth, over a second behind his teammate. Here are the FP1 times:1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:47.0702 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +0.145s3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.207s4 Isack Hadjar Red Bull +0.252s5 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.452s6 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes +0.533s7 Lando Norris McLaren +0.861s8 George Russell Mercedes +0.889s9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls +1.164s10 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi +1.336s11 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +1.362s 12 Nico Hülkenberg Audi +1.892s 13 Oliver Bearman Haas +1.940s 14 Alexander Albon Williams +2.267s 15 Franco Colapinto Alpine +2.333s 16 Esteban Ocon Haas +2.379s 17 Pierre Gasly Alpine +2.642s 18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac +2.769s 19 Sergio Pérez Cadillac +3.156s 20 Carlos Sainz Williams +3.792s 21 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +5.738s 22 Jak Crawford Aston Martin +6.129sJak Crawford, the reserve driver, had a run-out in place of Fernando Alonso … and picked up a pit-lane penalty. An Aston Martin speeding …It looks as though Hamilton will be able to take part in qualifying OK, with half an hour to the off. Ferrari have been hard at work.In addition to Norris, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and the two Aston Martin drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, all face grid penalties for taking new power unit items. Given Aston Martin’s struggles, only Hadjar’s loss has any great significance; he is sent to the back of the field, for taking three elements. However, so is Alonso. If my calculations are correct, we will finish with Stroll 20th, Hadjar 21st and Alonso 22nd.PreambleIn The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the most unspeakably offensive word in most of the cosmos is coincidentally also the name of a small country on Earth. Will anyone be taking Belgium’s name in vain after this weekend’s grand prix?Well, after this morning’s final practice session, perhaps Lewis Hamilton.For Hamilton, 2025 was one long bleep. But even if he has dropped back from second after Monaco and Barcelona – his first Ferrari win – to third in the standings, he is only seven points worse off than Russell and gained substantially on Antonelli. However, as PA reports: double quotation markLewis Hamilton will face a race against time to take part in qualifying for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix after he crashed out of final practice. In the final seconds on the concluding session at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton lost control of his Ferrari on the exit of Fagnes, racing through the gravel with the rear of his car thudding into the barrier. “I have destroyed the car, mate,” said Hamilton as he came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the track. Hamilton, unharmed in the accident, got out of his car to inspect the significant damage to the back right of his Ferrari – with his back-right wheel facing the wrong way. Earlier in the season, it was a Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen who were getting regularly bleeped over their radios. More recently, it’s been a Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen who have been getting bleeped on their radios, the change being that the former is now Kimi Antonelli rather than George Russell. Two finishes outside the points in the past three races after five straight wins have cut the 19-year-old’s championship lead to 25, from a high of 66. His car’s manoeuvrability failure at Silverstone when closing on the lead tested his youthful vocabulary.Life seemed to be improving for Verstappen with his second place in Austria, against a background of speculation over his Red Bull future. But the Dutchman crashing out at Silverstone had the bleep police out in force.Even Charles Leclerc, after the horror of retiring at his home grand prix in Monaco and then 15th in Barcelona as Hamilton was coming first and second, was swearing, albeit suavely, but won for Ferrari at Silverstone.Lando Norris, meanwhile, had his blue moments in China, along with Oscar Piastri because of McLaren’s double “did not start” with a power unit failure, followed by another problem in Japan. However Norris does in qualifying, he will start a further 10 places back, as the team have opted to take a new, improved Mercedes power unit now. McLaren explained: “We have chosen to do this in [expletive deleted], a circuit where overtaking is relatively more prevalent, as opposed to the following two events in Hungary and Zandvoort.”According to Douglas Adams, the concept Belgium embodies “is so revolting that the publication or broadcast of the word is utterly forbidden in all parts of the Galaxy except one, where they don’t know what it means”. Join me from 2.30pm for the buildup to qualifying, then from 3pm to see who, if anyone, will today be joining Zaphod Beeblebrox in exclaiming: “Holy Belgium, man!”Max Verstappen struggles not to use the ORF microphone as a prompt for more swearwords after his DNF at Silverstone in the last round. Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock