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Mercedes’ Kim Antonelli took an impressive pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix to finish fourth, more than 0.5 seconds adrift of team-mate and title rival George Russell.
The Italian, who leads the championship by 25 points from Russell, beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds, although the four-time champion was aided by teammate Issac Hadjar.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was an impressive third, 0.440s back, although he bailed on the final lap, but the world champion has a 10-point grid penalty for passing the engine units.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were fifth and sixth, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastre and the improved British rookie Arvid Lindblad Racing Bull.
Antonelli looked like a winner from the moment he finished Friday’s practice session and achieved his potential with his sixth pole position in 10 races this year.
On a delayed lap, he sent his best wishes to his father Marco, who is celebrating his 61st birthday on Saturday.
Antonelli said: “Q1, I felt a bit lost because the wind picked up and the balance was a bit on the edge, but the session came to us. I changed the front wing flap a bit for Q2. Q3 was good because we had a good first lap and I got a lot of time in the second lap. It was a good lap.”
“The lap felt good,” Russell said, “but since Silverstone we’ve been dealing with problems with straight line speed.”
“We think we’ve found the problem, it’s not the problem, then we think it’s the driving style, and it’s not the solution.
“But after looking at the information, I feel positive about the work I did. If you only take the edges, I did a very good job.
“Fighting Kim is very difficult in a fair fight. When we’re in this situation, it’s impossible. The team is working very hard to identify what it is. It could be a million things.”
Red Bull recruited Hadjar to help Verstappen with a drift stream on the long flat section as the Frenchman had a 30-place grid penalty for taking a new engine.
Verstappen said the trailer gained 0.3 seconds on the clock.
He added: “It was definitely helping me, otherwise I wouldn’t be standing here, P6 or something.”
“Knowing that Issac has a penalty and starts at the back has helped me. I’ll look in the mirror tomorrow. But how we did as a team, we’re happy to be in the front row.”
