Mercedes’ 19-year-old phenom Kimi Antonelli will lead the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, clocking 1m 44.361s to lock in pole position. The Italian teenager outpaced Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds. That stands as the widest qualifying margin of the season so far.
Anticipation is building ahead of today’s scheduled race start, with dark clouds threatening light rain showers over the 7-kilometer circuit. A wet track could neutralize the sheer pace advantage Mercedes has enjoyed all weekend.
Antonelli is hunting his first full grand prix victory since Monaco in early June. He secured a sprint win at Silverstone, but the Sunday feature race has eluded him for weeks. Yet his single-lap record remains flawless. This marks his sixth pole in 10 rounds, sustaining a perfect qualifying streak for the Mercedes team in 2026.
Verstappen only managed to secure the front row by executing a highly coordinated strategy. Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar sacrificed his own laps to provide Verstappen a slipstream through the terrifyingly fast Blanchimont corners. Hadjar was already facing a 30-place grid drop for multiple power unit changes, making his own track time irrelevant.
Even with the tow, Verstappen admitted he was outgunned. “I don’t really expect to race [Mercedes] tomorrow,” he told reporters after the session.
The gap was just as painful internally at Mercedes. George Russell, who inherits third place on the starting grid, described his own efforts to match Antonelli as “battling with one hand behind your back.”
Russell moves up to third only because McLaren’s Lando Norris, who originally qualified third fastest, was slapped with a 10-place grid penalty for replacing an electronic part. The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will start fourth and fifth, respectively.