Qualifications – Belgium: Stoffel Vandoorne on pole in front of his home crowd
Deprived of pole position since Austria, Stoffel Vandoorne found the key in front of his home crowd by setting the fastest time. He leads substitute driver Oliver Rowland and Sergey Sirotkin.
Last year, Stoffel Vandoorne began an impressive series of six consecutive poles in his Ardennes backyard. This year, he secured his second pole in front of his home crowd and the fourth in eight weekends. The suspense didn’t last long as the ART Grand Prix driver quickly took the lead, creating a gap of up to six-tenths from his closest rival. Faced with such a lead, the McLaren protégé decided to step aside early in the session to watch his rivals attempt to dethrone him.
But none were able to do so. The one who came closest, Oliver Rowland, fell short by 147 thousandths of the Belgian’s time, which is still a remarkable performance for someone participating in only his second weekend in the category.
Behind him is one of the title contenders, Sergey Sirotkin. Among the three closely matched for the second place in the championship, the Russian is the only one to have limited the damage and the gap with the championship leader. Indeed, Alexander Rossi, despite a strong third place in free practice, could do no better than 8th, while Rio Haryanto is even further behind as he is in 11th place.
Stoffel Vandoorne is therefore in an ideal position to further increase his lead and move even closer to the title.
| Drivers | Teams | Time | |
| 1 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1:56.278 |
| 2 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 1:56.425 |
| 3 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1:56.513 |
| 4 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:56.625 |
| 5 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1:56.659 |
| 6 | Mitch Evans | RUSSIAN TIME | 1:56.661 |
| 7 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1:56.701 |
| 8 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1:56.845 |
| 9 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:56.985 |
| 10 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 1:57.019 |
| 11 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1:57.143 |
| 12 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1:57.218 |
| 13 | Robert Visoiu | Rapax | 1:57.273 |
| 14 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1:57.275 |
| 15 | Nick Yelloly | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:57.328 |
| 16 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1:57.440 |
| 17 | Richie Stanaway | Status Grand Prix | 1:57.528 |
| 18 | Sergio Canamasas | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1:57.560 |
| 19 | Nathanaël Berthon | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1:57.615 |
| 20 | André Negrao | Arden International | 1:57.661 |
| 21 | Daniel De Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:57.746 |
| 22 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1:57.809 |
| 23 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1:58.136 |
| 24 | Gustav Malja | Trident | 1:58.371 |
| 25 | Sean Gelael | Carlin | 1:58.402 |
From our special correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps
