F1 Qualifying Results: Red Bull DENIED Belgian pole as Verstappen incident under investigation

Charles Leclerc will start first for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix thanks to Max Verstappen's grid penalty, having just squeaked past Sergio Perez's time by a hundredth of a second.

Verstappen put more than half a second into his rivals with a supreme lap, sending big warnings to the rest of the field about his prospects of cutting through the pack from 11th in what is expected to be a dry race at Spa.

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READ MORE: F1 driver in high-speed Spa crash as session red flagged

Saturday's early rain caused a chaotic session of qualifying, with the track drying pockets of rain arriving on multiple occasions.

There wasn't much time for teams to fine-tune their wet weather setups in FP3, with Lance Stroll's crash red flagging the session after about ten minutes of running and cars not returning to the track until the dying moments.

Zhou Guanyu was eliminated in Q1 and, had he not finished 20th, could have been in danger of dropping places on Sunday's grid after the FIA announced an investigation into him for potentially impeding Verstappen.

Q2 saw more changing conditions, with some rain arriving mid-session to keep the track in the zone for the intermediate tyre running. Verstappen set the fastest time of that segment of the afternoon, allowing him to sit back and relax while his rivals squabbled for position below him – much as he did in Q3.

Here are the full qualifying results from Spa.

F1 Qualifying Results: Belgian Grand Prix 2024

1. Max Verstappen [Red Bull] - 1:53.159sec
2. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari] - +0.595s
3. Sergio Perez [Red Bull] - +0.606s
4. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes] - +0.676s
5. Lando Norris [McLaren] - +0.822s
6. Oscar Piastri [McLaren] - +0.868s
7. George Russell [Mercedes] - +1.025s
8. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari] - +1.318s
9. Fernando Alonso [Aston Martin] - +1.606s
10. Esteban Ocon [Alpine] - +1.651s

ELIMINATED IN Q2

11. Alex Albon [Williams]
12. Pierre Gasly [Alpine]
13. Daniel Ricciardo [VCARB]
14. Valtteri Bottas [Sauber]
15. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin]

ELIMINATED IN Q1

16. Nico Hulkenberg [Haas]
17. Kevin Magnussen [Haas]
18. Yuki Tsunoda [VCARB]
19. Logan Sargeant [Williams]
20. Zhou Guanyu [Sauber]

How does F1 Qualifying work?

The qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Sunday's race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2.

Then, Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

READ MORE: FIA slam F1 star with astonishing 60-PLACE penalty at Belgian Grand Prix

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