Antonelli Takes Another Pole in Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying

Kimi Antonelli secured the top starting position for the Belgian Grand Prix after a thrilling qualifying session on Saturday. The 19-year-old Italian, who leads the championship standings, outpaced Red Bull's Max Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris. Norris, however, will drop 10 places on the grid due to technical changes made to his car.

Antonelli has now started from pole six times in ten races this season, with his Mercedes teammate George Russell taking the other four poles. Russell qualified fourth this time. From pole position this season, the driver has won six races — Antonelli four and Russell two.

In the first segment, Williams' Alexander Albon missed advancing by just 0.007 seconds, edged out by Haas' Oliver Bearman. The bottom four positions went to Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez (Cadillac), and Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

The second session eliminated only Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson, who failed to reach the top ten shootout. In the final segment, a red flag with six minutes remaining sent all cars to the pits. At that point, Norris led Antonelli by 0.039 seconds. After the restart, Verstappen and Antonelli overtook Norris, with Antonelli finishing ahead of Verstappen by more than 0.3 seconds and Norris by less than half a second.

Lewis Hamilton, who crashed in third practice earlier on Saturday, qualified sixth. The race is scheduled to start at 16:00 local time (Latvia) on Sunday.