Verstappen pips Piastri to pole for Spa sprint race

(Corrects second para gap from 0.11 to 0.011)

By Alan Baldwin

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium :Red Bull's Formula One leader Max Verstappen pipped Australian rookie Oscar Piastri to pole position for Saturday's sprint race at the Belgian Grand Prix after a rain-delayed and red-flagged qualifying shootout.

McLaren's Piastri had been on top of the timesheets until the final seconds when double world champion Verstappen went 0.011 quicker with a lap of one minute 49.056 seconds on a drying track.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will share the second row.

The standalone sprint format is being used at Spa for the first time, the third of six such events this season.

"It was really difficult, quite similar to yesterday," said Verstappen, who was fastest in every stage and also in Friday's damp-to-dry qualifying for Sunday's main grand prix.

He will start that longer race from sixth place due to a grid penalty.

"The gap was not as big as yesterday but there was also no need to risk it. Probably my second sector was a bit careful, but still on pole. That's what counts," he added.

Piastri said he "couldn’t have got much more out of that" and was happy to be on the front row.

McLaren's Lando Norris qualified fifth fastest with Alpine's Pierre Gasly sixth and Mercedes' seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton seventh.

The provisional pole changed hands swiftly in the final shootout, with Hamilton fastest then Red Bull's Sergio Perez, Gasly, Sainz and Piastri before Verstappen's predictable final flourish.

"It's good to get a clean end to qualifying," said Verstappen, with more rain forecast later. "I think clear vision is going to be very important if it's wet."

The Dutch driver is 110 points clear of Perez, who starts eighth, and he