Liam Lawson will start Formula One’s Belgium sprint race 11th on the grid, after missing out on a top 10 place by just 0.041s.
The Kiwi Racing Bulls driver was the final driver eliminated in the second session of sprint qualifying (SQ2), and was pipped for a place in the top 10 by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
“[I’m] a little bit frustrated,” said Lawson post-qualifying. “It’s just small margins - which is crazy around here, because it’s such a long lap.
“The car’s been fast, I was on a lap that was plenty good enough, but had an issue in the last chicane.
“It’s just [about] extracting every little bit out of the car. Wind changes made quite a big difference, as they did a couple of weeks ago at Silverstone.
“It’s just sensitive. We’ll try and maximise, as drivers, trying to put everything together.
“Normally when you do that, it’s enough to go through.”
Regardless, 11th still represents Lawson’s best qualifying in a Formula One sprint race, bettering the 14th places he qualified in for both Qatar 2023, and Miami earlier this year.
What’s more, Lawson will also start ahead of both Mercedes cars, as well as the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, the current world championship leader, will start on pole after a best lap of 1m 40.510s, a new track record, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen joins him on the front row, 0.477s back.
Piastri’s teammate Norris, looking to win three successive Grand Prix, qualified third, 0.618s back.
Meanwhile, Lawson’s Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar qualified in ninth place, and was 1.461s back from Piastri’s time in SQ3.
Unlike the Grand Prix, which sees points awarded to the top 10, the sprint race only sees the top eight drivers score.
Starting on medium tyres, as a means of saving sets of softs for later in the weekend, Lawson’s first lap of 1m 42.897s was enough for him to sit in ninth place by the time he returned to the Racing Bulls garage, 0.511s clear of the drop zone, with just over four minutes remaining in SQ1.
By the time Lawson emerged from the pits for his final qualifying laps, that gap to elimination was unchanged to Hamilton, who had oversteered at turn 14 to put himself on the brink.
That came after Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli lost control and spun at the same turn, but left gravel on the track as a hazard for all drivers to negotiate.
But when both Hamilton and Antonelli failed to better their times, Lawson was through to SQ2 by 0.315s, despite having to slow for a yellow flag - caused by the Ferrari driver when he spun at turn 18.
After a brief delay to clear the gravel at turn 14, and SQ2 got underway, 11 of the remaining drivers didn’t set a timed lap until the final two minutes of the session, including Lawson.
Lawson crossed the line of his one timed lap in 1m 42.169s, which was initially good enough for fifth place.
However, as track temperatures continued to improve, Lawson finishing his lap earlier counted against him, before Norris condemned him to missing the top 10 by one place.
The sprint race sees the 20 drivers take part in a shorter, 15-lap affair, compared to the 44 laps of the grand prix.
Earlier, in the weekend’s only practice session, Lawson’s best time of 1m 43.478s was enough for 15th place, with the lengthy nature of Spa-Francorchamps allowing him just 20 laps in an hour.
Lawson finished 1.456s back from session leader Piastri, and 0.356s back from Hadjar in 10th. Verstappen was second, 0.404s back from Piastri, while Norris was 0.504s behind in practice.
Across his first two stints, Lawson managed 15 laps on hard tyres, even if his best time saw him clock the 17th-fastest time, to be 1.589s off the early pace set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Inside the last 10 minutes, Lawson exited the Racing Bulls garage on a set of medium tyres, while 17 of the 20 strong field fitted softs. In fact, only Lawson, teammate Hadjar, and the two Mercedes cars finished on the mediums.
In the final minutes, Lawson improved his time by more than two seconds, as Racing Bulls clearly adopted the strategy of saving their softer tyres for the weekend’s two qualifying sessions, and Monday’s Grand Prix.
The Belgium sprint race begins at 10pm on Saturday, before qualifying for the Grand Prix at 2am on Sunday morning.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.