F1 2025 Belgium GP LIVE: Qualifying updates, results and race start time at Spa – UK Times

They’ll only get one crack at getting out of the bottom-five!

Current bottom-five (16-20): Colapinto, Russell, Stroll, Antonelli, Bortoleto

Fernando Alonso the man on the button in P15.

First laps down then in Q1 – and both Mercedes drivers are in the bottom-five!

Current bottom-five (16-20): Colapinto, Russell, Stroll, Antonelli, Bortoleto

At the top, an oddly shaped top-three of Leclerc, Sainz, Lawson.

Piastri goes a tenth quicker in the McLaren pair’s first runs…

First laps being completed now. 12:00 to go in Q1…

McLaren definitely the favourites then, as the cars line up at the end of the pit-lane.

Alonso close to hitting a Haas leaving the garage: “I nearly crashed…”

“Spa is my second home grand prix, Silverstone, Belgium, Monaco. It’ll make my Mum happy, this is her home race, therefore it is my home race.

“I always love it here, one thing I don’t love here, the weather is even worse than the UK, which I didn’t think it was possible, but it’s Spa, it’s one of the best tracks.”

“There’s some learning to take away from a race like this,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1 afterwards.

“However, it doesn’t feel like we’re very far off the maximum potential of the car. I don’t feel like we’re out of place with the set-up or anything like that.

“I don’t think there’s anything in the car that makes us hope that we can fight with Red Bull or McLaren, unfortunately.”

“It just comes down to yourself. You’re in control of your own destiny.

“It’s a bit of a unique situation that I managed by the team who I’m racing for, but that’s the same for Kimi as well, and that’s a position we find ourselves in both.

“It’s not just the short term future of next year. There’s conversations already going on for drivers for ’27, ’28, ’29. People have always looked many years in advance.

“When I was at Williams when I signed in 2019, 2022 was always the projection for me to join [Mercedes], if that makes sense. So the situation we find ourselves in now is, I don’t think it’s abnormal, and from my side, there is no tension, because there’s two cars to every team. I’m performing the best I’ve ever performed. I have the majority of the points for the team.

“So if you look at the facts, you would argue my job is safe. That’s why I’m not concerned at all.”

7. Racing Bulls – 37 points

8. Aston Martin – 36 points

Horner won 14 world championships in total across his two decades at the team and has been a fierce rival for Hamilton, both during his time at McLaren and at Mercedes.

In modern-day Formula One, there aren’t too many narratives which could have compensated for Lewis Hamilton missing out on a Silverstone podium for the first time. Nor one which sparked more acclaim than Lando Norris winning his home grand prix. Yet Nico Hulkenberg’s tense and glorious third-place finish last time out – ending the sport’s longest podium-less streak, 239 races and no more – was just that.

From last on the starting grid in P19, the German driver and his Sauber team, now pivotally led by ex-Red Bull guru Jonathan Wheatley, executed every call and nailed every pit-stop in the dry-wet chaos to leapfrog 16 cars and finish on the podium, staving off Hamilton in the process.

A podium for Hulkenberg in a Sauber before Hamilton claims a podium for Ferrari? Nobody had that on their 2025 F1 bingo card.