Autobayng News Team
One of Formula 1’s rookie drivers is now leading his much more experienced team mate in their qualifying battle after today’s session at Spa-Francorchamps.
Lap time change from practice to qualifying
Aston Martin clearly found it harder to extract pace from their car than their rivals did following the single practice session. While most teams improved their lap times by over a second and a half between practice and qualifying, Aston Martin found little more than half that. The upshot is the AMR25s will start from the back row of the grid.
Gaps between team mates
Having had one qualifying session already prior to today, the gaps between the teams’ drivers tended to close up.
Lando Norris reversed a substantial deficit to his team mate Oscar Piastri and beat him to pole position. Yuki Tsunoda got his hands on some of the newer Red Bull parts and joined Max Verstappen in Q3 – though he was further off his team mate than any other driver.
Gabriel Bortoleto beat Nico Hulkenberg by a similar amount. This was Bortoleto’s second-biggest win in qualifying against his Sauber team mate this year and is clearly part of a trend.
Hulkenberg has only out-qualified Bortoleto twice in the last eight rounds, and on those occasions his advantage was no more than six hundredths of a second. Bortoleto has now overtaken him in the qualifying battle, leading 7-6.
Bortoleto isn’t the only rookie who is leading their qualifying battle: Isack Hadjar is as well. However Bortoleto’s team mate is vastly more experienced than Hadjar’s: this will be Hulkenberg’s 240th start in a grand prix.
Team mate battles sequences
Lewis Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli failed to extend their runs of Q3 appearances, which stood at five and four respectively coming into this race. Both went out in Q1.
Lance Stroll did as well and now has the most consecutive Q1 eliminations of any driver.
Out-qualified team mate
| Rank | Driver | Streak |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fernando Alonso | 25 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | 19 |
| 3 | George Russell | 7 |
| 4 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 3 |
| = | Pierre Gasly | 3 |
| 6 | Isack Hadjar | 2 |
| 7 | Alexander Albon | 1 |
| = | Esteban Ocon | 1 |
| = | Lando Norris | 1 |
| = | Charles Leclerc | 1 |
Out-qualified by team mate
| Rank | Driver | Streak |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lance Stroll | 25 |
| 2 | Yuki Tsunoda | 11 |
| 3 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 7 |
| 4 | Franco Colapinto | 3 |
| = | Nico Hulkenberg | 3 |
| 6 | Liam Lawson | 2 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 1 |
| = | Oliver Bearman | 1 |
| = | Lewis Hamilton | 1 |
| = | Oscar Piastri | 1 |
Q1 and Q3
Eliminated in Q1
| Rank | Driver | Streak |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lance Stroll | 4 |
| 2 | Franco Colapinto | 2 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | 1 |
| = | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 1 |
| = | Lewis Hamilton | 1 |
Reached Q3
| Rank | Driver | Streak |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lando Norris | 20 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | 17 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | 16 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | 6 |
| 5 | George Russell | 5 |
| 6 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 1 |
| = | Alexander Albon | 1 |
| = | Yuki Tsunoda | 1 |
| = | Isack Hadjar | 1 |
| = | Liam Lawson | 1 |
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