Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli took pole position at the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on July 18, posting a lap time of 1:44.361. He edged out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds to claim his sixth pole from ten races so far this season [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Antonelli leads the Formula One championship by 25 points over his Mercedes teammate George Russell, despite recent setbacks including a battery failure in Spain and a broken wheel-shield in Silverstone. He conveyed well wishes to his father Marco on his 61st birthday during his slowing down lap after qualifying [1, 2, 6, 4, 5].
Verstappen, who benefited from a slipstream from his teammate Isack Hadjar—who carries a 30-place grid penalty—qualified second and acknowledged the help, saying, "It was definitely helping me, otherwise I would not be standing here, it would be P6 or something." He added that tomorrow will be about watching the cars around him, but was pleased with the qualifying result [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
McLaren’s Lando Norris was the third fastest in qualifying but faces a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding engine part usage, meaning he will start 13th. Norris said, "It is nice to be standing here, it is not nice knowing I have to go 10 places back tomorrow. It is unfortunate that it is not where we will be starting tomorrow because it would be nice to have a little fight with these guys but we made the most of it." The fourth fastest was Russell, who qualified over half a second behind Antonelli and admitted struggling this season adapting to new cars and power units [1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5].
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified fifth, while Lewis Hamilton, who crashed in final practice but whose car was repaired for qualifying, secured sixth place [1, 2, 7, 3, 4, 5]. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto qualified eighth [2, 4].
Antonelli commented on the tricky session, saying, "It was not a very straightforward session, the track changed a lot. But tomorrow is another day and obviously I have Max starting next to me so it's going to be important to get a good start and then be ahead into Turn Five." Russell described his adaptation challenge: "With these new power units, with these new tyres, with these new cars, I’m having to set the car up in a way that has not been suited to my driving. I’m having to drive in a way that I haven’t driven in my whole career and I’m having to adapt to this." [2, 6]
Antonelli’s championship lead stood larger after his dominant poles in Monaco and Spain but was trimmed to 25 points by Spa due to his recent reliability issues and Russell’s win in Austria on July 17 [6].
