Kimi Antonelli has added a sixth pole position to his season tally after setting the fastest lap in Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, fending off challenges from Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
The Mercedes driver took time to find a rhythm during the hour-long session, but his final effort of 1m 44.361 was enough to seize P1 by three-tenths from Verstappen, who suffered a near miss with Isack Hadjar on his last lap, having been given a tow by his Red Bull team mate.
Norris – who will drop to P13 thanks to a 10 place grid penalty for exceeding his power unit components allocation – had initially set the fastest time after the opening runs in Q3, but could not find enough to beat Antonelli.
The full top 10 are- Pole: Antonelli, P2: Verstappen, P3: Norris, P4: Russell, P5: Leclerc, P6: Hamilton, P7: Piastri, P8: Lindblad, P9: Bortoleto and P10: Hadjar.
However with Norris’ penalty taking effect everyone moves up one. As well Hadjar will be tumbling back to the end of the grid due to his 20 place grid penalty.
A great result for Antonelli, exactly what he would want going into this weekend, now he will be looking for the win! Antonelli has not won since Monaco back on the 7th June! So he will be looking to get those 25 points over his teammate.
As for George a good result for him, he will be wanting to go for the win, his had a couple of good race weekends in a row now and will be carrying that momentum.
A good result for Verstappen! He will be very happy with a front row start and he will be wanting to go for the win, his not a four time World Champion for no reason! A little note, that Hadjar done a great job giving the tow to help Verstappen to P2!
A semi decent result for the Ferrari’s, great for the team to get Hamilton out for Qualifying after his crash in FP3 – a really good job. They can do a lot from starting 4th and 5th – battling for the win won’t be out of the question for these two drivers.
A shame for Lando to have the 10 place grid penalty when he qualified so well – but the reason they did it at this track is because you can overtake here.
As for his teammate an okay result for Piastri, starting 6th but qualified 7th.
A really good effort by Bortoleto, he seems to be getting more and more comfortable with the car and putting these results in – which sometimes seem to be going unnoticed.
It’s great to be on pole. Was not a very straightforward session, the track changed a lot but we were able to improve lap by lap and bring home pole which was nice. Of course, tomorrow is another day. I have Max starting next to me so it’s going to be important to get a good start and then try to be ahead into Turn 5.
Antonelli on pole position.
Jordan's Track Talk 
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