FACTS AND STATS: Perez bags first front row start since China after scraping into Q3 by 0.003s

Saturday was as wet as predicted in Spa, with the rain falling across final practice and intermittently throughout qualifying. Throughout it all emerged Max Verstappen with the fastest time, but the Dutchman won’t get to start on pole thanks to a grid penalty. That’s not the first time he’s ceded pole here to Charles Leclerc either, which is just one of a number of interesting facts and stats from Belgium…

• Verstappen was quickest in Q3 at Spa for the fourth consecutive year, but loses pole to a penalty for the third consecutive year.

• The Dutchman has never won from P11 on the grid in his career – but he has won from a record-equalling nine different grid positions.

• Verstappen’s margin to the field in Q3 in Belgium was 0.632s in 2022, 0.820s in 2023 and 0.595s in 2024.

READ MORE: Verstappen claims P1 in Belgium qualifying ahead of grid penalty as he heads Leclerc and Perez

• Ferrari inherit pole from Verstappen at Spa for the third consecutive year, Leclerc for the second straight year.

• The pole-sitter has not won any of the last five races in 2024.

• Leclerc will start from his 25th career pole, and his second pole of the season. The last man to win from P1 this season was Leclerc himself, back in Monaco.

• Sergio Perez starts second, having missed out on beating Leclerc by just 0.011s, but having only made Q3 by 0.003s.

• The Mexican starts second for the third consecutive year at Spa and has finished second here for the last two years.

• It’s Perez’s first top-seven start since Miami, eight races ago.

• Lewis Hamilton bagged his third top-three start of the season with P3 on the grid as he out-qualified his team mate in consecutive races for the first time this season.

• It’s the fourth straight year that Hamilton starts on the second row at this track.

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• Lando Norris starts fourth, his highest career start at Spa, but lowest start this season since Monaco, six races ago.

• Oscar Piastri will start from P5, the same slot as last year where he crashed out on the opening lap.

• George Russell grabbed sixth, and still leads Hamilton 10-4 in their qualifying head-to-head this year.

• Carlos Sainz starts seventh, having been out-qualified by Leclerc for the first time in four races.

• Fernando Alonso bagged his third straight Q3 appearance.

• Esteban Ocon will start ninth, reaching Q3 after losing out in Q1 at Silverstone and the Hungaroring.

• Alex Albon will start in the top 10 after Verstappen’s penalty is applied.

• Pierre Gasly starts 12th, the same position he started this race last year. He’s been out-qualified by Ocon 10-4 this season.

• Daniel Ricciardo out-qualified his team mate in back-to-back races, but Yuki Tsunoda does have a grid penalty here.

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• Lance Stroll made Q3 at the last two races but couldn’t do so here after crashing in FP3, repaying his team with a Q2 slot.

• Both Haas cars were eliminated in Q1 for the first time since Monaco 2023. Nico Hulkenberg did out-qualify his team mate, to ensure their head-to-head reads 11-3 in the German’s favour.

• Tsunoda suffered his third Q1 elimination of the season, and his third Q1 elimination in four Belgian Grand Prix visits.

• Logan Sargeant was knocked out in Q1 for the first time since Austria.

• Zhou Guanyu was the slowest qualifier for the eighth time this season.