Antonelli takes Belgian GP pole at Spa with 1m44.361s

A 0.317-second margin over Verstappen is a commanding qualifying performance, and the fact that Antonelli had already led FP2 and FP3 makes this a clean sweep of the Spa weekend so far — no flukes, no traffic gifts. The grid for Sunday is significantly reshuffled by penalties: Norris's 10-place drop for a fourth battery and Hadjar's 30-place hit for engine components mean the race order bears little resemblance to qualifying. Russell inherits an effective front-row start from third on the grid, which puts Mercedes in a strong position they didn't fully earn on pace alone. Albon's sixth Q1 exit in ten rounds, acknowledged openly by his own team principal, is the subplot that keeps accumulating weight.