Charles Leclerc has secured pole position for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
Twelve months ago, Max Verstappen qualified fastest but needed to serve a five-place grid penalty for a new gearbox.
This time around, an almost-identical scenario played out, Verstappen choosing to take a new power unit and subsequently being the quickest in the field by over half a second.
However, needing to serve a 10-place grid penalty for that upgrade, pole position was gifted to Leclerc, who edged out Sergio Perez by just 0.011 seconds to secure his second successive pole at this race.
After qualifying, Leclerc said: "I definitely did not expect that this weekend with the tricky conditions. We have done something above our explications, so it's a good day for the team. Now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen whenever the rain is gone.
"Without this rain, [aiming for] probably P5. That was the position we were fighting for, with Mercedes especially. But with the rain, it helped us a little bit. But I'm not going to complain - I'm really happy. I'm very happy with the lap in Q3 and it's good to be back on the front part of the grid, but now we've got to finalise that tomorrow.
Who else qualified where?
QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 27, 2024
Verstappen comfortably quickest 💪#F1 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/v2QlSadKj7
Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, both of whom have impressed in recent races, will start third and fourth in their Mercedes and McLaren's respectively.
Oscar Piastri, the winner in Hungary last week, had to make do with fifth, alongside George Russell who will be disappointed with sixth in the other Mercedes.
Carlos Sainz Jr was more than a second slower than Verstappen and has to settle for seventh, while Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed the drivers who featured in Q3.
Williams representative Alexander Albon is promoted to 10th spot, despite being eliminated in Q2, with Verstappen slotting into 11th position.
Darren Plant
