Every sport has its university, a place or event that tests participants, showcasing their talent. In cycling, it’s the Paris-Roubaix; in MotoGP, Assen represents one of the toughest challenges of the year, while in Formula 1, nestled in the Ardennes, emerges Spa-Francorchamps, rightly considered one of the most spectacular and unpredictable circuits of the championship.
After seeing his streak of five consecutive pole positions interrupted last week, Max Verstappen could not have chosen a better setting to regain the top spot in qualifying. The superiority displayed could be described as overwhelming. To put it simply, he inflicted an eight-tenth gap on the second-place qualifier, Charles Leclerc, who will inherit the pole position and the first grid slot on Sunday due to Max Verstappen’s penalty resulting from a gearbox change.
However, the two-time world champion also experienced some nerve-wracking moments, particularly in Q2, where he ended up in 10th place, risking a dramatic elimination. After aborting his first flying lap attempt, the Dutchman had only one fast lap left, which allowed him to advance to the final session. Nevertheless, the strategy adopted caused a heated exchange with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase. Fortunately, the dispute was quickly resolved, as the two understand each other better than anyone else, operating like a perfectly synchronized mechanism where sometimes the gears just need a bit of cleaning.
On a partially damp track due to a shower that hit the circuit just before qualifying, the crucial aspect was not so much finding the absolute best time in each individual sector but putting together all the pieces of the puzzle, something that eluded him in the dry lap in Budapest a week ago.
At the end of the first attempt in Q3, Charles Leclerc was actually leading the pack with about one and a half tenths advantage over the chasers, despite a small mistake in turn one that led him to search for traction on the still wet and slippery outer curb. Leclerc indeed improved his opening sector time during his second attempt, matching Verstappen’s time in the third split.
However, this was countered by a middle sector that was far from exciting, where the Ferrari driver struggled and lost approximately seven tenths. Observing the timing data of various drivers, it is evident that some teams showed excellent performance in specific parts of the track but struggled in other sections. For instance, Mercedes set the absolute best time in the final sector with Lewis Hamilton, thanks to an extremely low-downforce setup that paid off in straight-line speed but cost them dearly in the more technical section, where the gap exceeded eight tenths.
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On the contrary, McLaren managed to hold their own in the middle sector, where the MCL60 demonstrated its prowess in navigating medium and high-speed corners, but struggled on the straights, with top speeds over 15 km/h slower, especially at the end of the Kemmel straight.
Comparing the telemetry data of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc’s best laps, it is evident that in the first sector, the two contenders are relatively close in terms of lap times and top speeds, despite some slight discrepancies. Ferrari tends to show its strength in the initial acceleration out of turn one, partly due to different usage modes of the ERS, while Red Bull’s superiority emerges in the latter part of the Kemmel straight.
The middle sector begins with the Les Combes section, where the Dutchman made a difference, carrying more speed into the corner with a later braking point. His confidence and better line allowed him to exit the section with higher velocity, arriving at turn eight with a seven km/h advantage.
Also, the Bruxelles corner is interesting, where two different interpretations are evident. While Charles Leclerc attempted a smoother and rounder line, which cost him in terms of cornering speed, Max Verstappen followed a more aggressive trajectory, allowing him to exit with a significant performance advantage, which he maintained in turn nine and beyond. It’s no wonder that the Red Bull man himself mentioned taking risks towards the end of the qualifying session: “Honestly, I crossed the line and… It was pretty hectic out there; there is still only one dry line in some places. I had confidence. But honestly, I didn’t know where I was until I looked at the screens. But yeah, Q3, the last lap, I think was really good. I just risked a bit more than all the other laps.” – he explained.
Photographer: Gianluca D’Alessandro
A complex section, as confirmed by Charles Leclerc himself in the interviews following the qualifying session, where he mentioned that turns 8 and 9 presented challenging mixed conditions: ‘It was very difficult, especially turns 8 and 9 were terrible. You approached the corner, and you never knew how much grip you would have, you could only hope the car would regain grip.’
While there were no significant differences in the change of direction in terms of lap times, with the Monegasque slightly faster, the same cannot be said for turn 14, the last one before the end of the second sector. In this case, what weighed on the Ferrari driver was the delay in going full throttle on the exit, which also affected the initial part of the subsequent acceleration, forcing the SF-23 to expend a lot of energy to nullify the accumulated gap.
Undoubtedly, the rain has changed the course of the qualifying session, highlighting different strengths and weaknesses of each car. The fundamental aspect was to put together all the pieces of the puzzle, sector by sector, an art in which Max Verstappen excelled in qualifying. With the possibility of rain returning for the sprint race, it could regulate a day full of incidents.
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