Lando Norris admitted he was braced for a chaotic rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix after beating championship rival Oscar Piastri to pole position.
Norris edged out McLaren team-mate Piastri by just 0.085 seconds at Spa-Francorchamps, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third.
In the other scarlet car, Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 and was set to line up from a lowly 16th – a performance the seven-time world champion described as “unacceptable”.
Norris secured his fourth pole of the season and his second in three races in dry conditions, but rain is forecast to hit Sunday’s 44-lap race in the Ardennes.
However, Norris has won both of the two races staged in the wet this year – the curtain raiser in Melbourne and the last round in Silverstone three weeks ago – and said: “It’s probably going to rain and at Spa, there is a high chance it could just hit half of the track and not the other half, so we could be in for a chaotic race like Australia or Silverstone.
“Hopefully I can take advantage from being at the front, but I don’t expect it to be dry. I expect it to be raining and for there to be more chaos.”
Norris qualified six tenths behind Piastri for Saturday’s sprint race. He started third and finished in the same position with Piastri one place above him – allowing the Australian to extend his championship lead from eight points to nine.
Max Verstappen won the first Formula One race staged following Christian Horner’s dismissal as Red Bull team principal and the defending champion will start from fourth for Sunday’s main event.
Yet in qualifying on Saturday, Norris delivered with his first lap in Q3 to hold a near two-tenth advantage over Piastri heading into the concluding runs and although he failed to improve and Piastri did, it was enough to take the 13th pole of his career as he bids for a hat-trick of consecutive wins.
“Everyone was pretty worried after yesterday but I wasn’t even that far off,” said Norris.
“There was nothing to worry about, but people like to make a lot of things up. It was just a couple of little issues that I had.
“I was confident coming into today so it was nice to get back on top.”
At the other end of the grid, Hamilton will have just four drivers behind him when the lights go out on Sunday. His lap was chalked off by the stewards after he ran all four wheels of his Ferrari off the circuit at Raidillon.
Hamilton, who spun in qualifying for the sprint race and then improved only three places from his grid slot of 18th, is without a podium for Ferrari – the deepest he has ever gone into a season without a top-three finish.
“I don’t agree (with the stewards’ decision), but I’m out,” said the 40-year-old. “It was another mistake from my side and I have to look internally.
“I have to apologise to my team because it is just unacceptable to be out in both Q1s this weekend. A very, very poor performance.”
