Verstappen had entered the qualifying session at Spa having had a fifth gearbox of the season fitted, which triggers a five-place grid penalty for the GP, but does not impact his starting spot for Saturday’s sprint race.
The Dutchman had trailed Leclerc after the first runs in Q3 – having only just scraped through in 10th in Q2 following the switch from wet to dry tyres in that session, and as he disagreed with Red Bull’s run plan that led to a terse exchange with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
On the second runs in Q3, Leclerc led the frontrunners around and improved the top spot benchmark to a 1m46.988 – gaining nearly a second on his previous personal best.
He was untroubled by all but Verstappen, who, running deep in the Q3 pack behind, blasted to the top spot in all three sectors on his final lap and he secured the fastest time with a 1m46.168s.
However, the world champion is set to start Sunday’s race in sixth following his penalty.
Sergio Perez will join Leclerc on the front row for that event as he improved with his final run to knock Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton down to fourth.
Hamilton faces a post-qualifying investigation for a possible unsafe rejoining infraction following a bizarre incident in which he briefly went off the track at Eau Rouge/Radillon while running ahead of team-mate George Russell, who ended up eighth in Q3 in the other Mercedes.
Source: Autosport