For almost as long as closed-circuit motor racing has been organised, the concept of qualifying has always been a straightforward and simple one. The fastest cars start the race from the front of the grid, the slowest cars start from the back.
However, for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, three of the top five qualifiers will start the 54th world championship race held at Spa-Francorchamps from the bottom five slots on the grid – a rare side-effect of Formula 1’s strict rules on power unit limitations in a season.
As the first driver in eight years to run with the coveted number one on his car, Max Verstappen has made a habit of finishing in first place on Sundays far more often in 2022 than he has not. Even at Hungary before the summer break, he shrugged off a tenth-place start to rise up into contention for the win by half distance, then have the victory sewn up by the three-quarter mark of the race.
As if to add to their driver’s degree of difficulty for the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull decided to make things more interesting for the championship leader by taking enough power unit penalties to drop him to the back of the grid on Sunday. But after a peerless performance on Saturday that left him six tenths clear of everyone, he will line up five places further back in the pack than he started in Hungary.
Verstappen says he aims to be “on the podium” at the conclusion of the 44-lap event. But with the astonishing pace he’s shown so far this weekend, which gave championship rival Charles Leclerc cause for concern on Saturday, his rivals fully expect him to be fighting for the top step on the podium yet again.
“I think Max is going to probably slice through and win the race probably pretty comfortably,” admitted Mercedes’ George Russell, who will start from fifth on the grid. “I think he and Red Bull are just miles ahead of everyone.”
Russell is not alone in that assessment. Carlos Sainz Jnr, credited with pole position despite one of his scruffiest Q3s of the year so far, knows he will be looking in his mirrors regularly to check for a Red Bull – not just that of Sergio Perez, which will start alongside him on the front row, but Verstappen’s too.
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“With the pace Max has, I think as soon as there’s either a Safety Car that can help him close the gap, or even with the pace that he has, that if you translate it into 44 laps,…
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