Ferrari's Charles Leclerc secured pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday, despite Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen clocking the fastest lap in wet conditions.
Verstappen faces a 10-place grid penalty for using a fifth engine, dropping him to 11th on Sunday.
Championship leader Verstappen, a three-time world champion, will start from the middle of the pack but aims for his fourth consecutive win in Belgium, a track known for its overtaking opportunities.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez, under pressure after a string of poor performances, joins Leclerc on the front row. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton will start third, with McLaren's Lando Norris completing the second row.
"I definitely did not expect that this weekend, with the tricky conditions, to do something above our expectations," Leclerc said. "We need to focus on tomorrow and what will happen when the rain is gone. Without the rain, P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes. The rain helped us, but I'm not going to complain."
Norris is second in the championship, 76 points behind Verstappen, and will see this as another great chance to close the gap, especially in the expected drier conditions.
It turned out to be a repeat of last year's qualifying at Spa, where Verstappen was also fastest but dropped to sixth on the grid with another penalty, and Leclerc took advantage by grabbing pole position.
This time around, Verstappen set a time of one minute, 53.159 seconds, which nobody could beat, but Leclerc, 0.595 seconds slower, will be the man at the front of the grid.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri, who won his first F1 Grand Prix last weekend in Hungary, begins fifth with George Russell sixth in the Mercedes.
Leclerc's Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz will start seventh on the grid, and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso eighth, with Alpine's Esteban Ocon ninth, and Alexander Albon of Williams 10th.
The rain meant the earlier final practice was more or less a washout, with little driving done and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll crashing early on, but qualifying began in slightly improved conditions.
Stroll's team had plenty of work to do before qualifying after they were forced to change everything except the survival cell, and he failed to make the final phase of qualifying.
Verstappen won here in 2022 from 14th on the grid, and last year from sixth, but after the impressive form of McLaren last weekend in their one-two in Hungary, and with Leclerc on pole, the championship leader has a real battle on his hands.
Leclerc has had only one other pole position this season, at Monaco, but that also gave him his only win this term. Verstappen is in real danger of failing to win for a fourth successive GP, something that has not happened since 2020.
"It was a nice qualifying, luckily the weather was OK, raining a little bit but we could still do a decent qualifying," Verstappen said. "Tomorrow is a different day, warmer, no rain. It's all about tire degradation. I don't know how quick we'll be, but I hope we can be in the mix."
