Kimi Antonelli raced to an emphatic pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix to leave his world championship rivals trailing in his wake.The 19-year-old Mercedes F1 driver headed into qualifying as the man to beat after topping two of the three practice sessions in Spa-Francorchamps and he delivered on his status with a brilliant lap.Antonelli saved his very best to last to see off Red Bull driver Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds.Lando Norris qualified third, four tenths down on Antonelli, but the world champion w Follow live F1 updates from the Belgian Grand Prix with The Independent. PinnedWhat time is the race on Sunday?The Belgian Grand Prix starts at 2pm (BST) at Spa-Francorchamps. (Getty)Kieran Jackson18 July 2026 16:59Max Verstappen, who qualified P2:“Tow was definitely helping me, wouldn’t be standing here. Isack did a really good job in the final sector.“For the race, I’ll be looking in my mirrors, the car has honestly been quite decent. We are happy of course to be on the front row.”(Reuters)Kieran Jackson19 July 2026 12:44Top-10 - driver standings:Antonelli’s lead is 25 points.1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) - 179 points2. George Russell (Mercedes) - 154 points3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 147 points4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 108 points5. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 97 points6. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 82 points7. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - 76 points8. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) - 52 points9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) - 42 points10. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) - 39 pointsKieran Jackson19 July 2026 12:35Carlos Sainz has a 10-place grid penalty Sainz has taken a new power unit element and, as such, has been handed a 10-place grid penalty. The Williams driver did qualify P14.Kieran Jackson19 July 2026 12:24Lewis Hamilton, who will start P5:“Firstly, a big thank you to the team for the incredible job they did getting the car back together after FP3. I'm grateful as always for all their hard work. The car lacked some stability in qualifying, and we knew that the first and last sectors would be our biggest challenge, but we managed to extract the maximum from today's package. “We’re starting in a decent position tomorrow and I'll be giving everything I can to move us forward.Kieran Jackson19 July 2026 12:15Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur:“We have slightly mixed feelings after this session, as we knew before the weekend that this track would be quite difficult for us, although overall, I think our performance was decent. “If you consider that Verstappen benefited from a slipstream and Charles had to deal with the yellow flag situation in which he probably lost one place, I’d say it wasn’t a bad session for us. As for Lewis, the team did a great job to get the car fixed in time after his crash. “It’s never ideal to go into quali like this but he has had good pace all weekend.Now focus on ourselves, knowing there is a long race ahead of us tomorrow. We made a good step forward after FP3 and will fight, knowing we always perform a bit better in the race. It will be difficult for all the teams to decide the best way to deploy energy to either defend or attack.”Kieran Jackson19 July 2026 12:00Lando Norris, who qualified P3: “We’ve not changed anything, nice to be standing here, not nice knowing I have to go 10 places back. We made the most of it, still a very good qualifying. I performed well all weekend so far and we can have a good race tomorrow.“The car is performing well, there’s plenty of opportunities, a long race, put on a bit of a show for you.”Norris will start P13...Kieran Jackson19 July 2026 11:45Kimi Antonelli surges to dominant Belgium GP pole position as Lewis Hamilton strugglesKimi Antonelli raced to an emphatic pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix to leave his world championship rivals trailing in his wake.The 19-year-old Mercedes F1 driver headed into qualifying as the man to beat after topping two of the three practice sessions in Spa-Francorchamps and he delivered on his status with a brilliant lap.Antonelli saved his very best to last to see off Red Bull driver Max Verstappen by 0.317 seconds.Lando Norris qualified third, four tenths down on Antonelli, but the world champion will line up from 13th as he serves a 10-place grid penalty for exceeding his allocated number of engine parts.Kieran Jackson19 July 2026 11:25What is the starting grid on Sunday?1. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)3. George Russell (Mercedes)4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)5. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)6. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)7. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls)8. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi)9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)10. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)11. Franco Colapinto (Alpine)12. Nico Hulkenberg (Audi)13. Lando Norris (McLaren) *14. Carlos Sainz (Williams)15. Ollie Bearman (Haas)16. Alex Albon (Williams)17. Esteban Ocon (Haas)18. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac)19. Sergio Perez (Cadillac)20. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)*21. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull)**22. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)****Norris and Stroll have a 10-place grid penalty and will start in 13th**Hadjar has a 30-place grid penalty and will start in 21st***Alonso had a 20-place grid penalty and will start 22ndKieran Jackson19 July 2026 09:00Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack: “It's another tough Saturday, but we know this is our situation and we just focused on delivering a well-executed Qualifying session. Tyre preparation was good for both Lance and Fernando, and they both placed their cars well to pick up a tow on their best laps. “With our current performance level, it won't be an easy race, but we will focus to extract what we can tomorrow. Just one more race and then we can focus on Budapest.”Kieran Jackson19 July 2026 03:00