Belgium GP: Verstappen edges Russell to take pole at Spa

Spa [Belgium], August 28 (ANI): Max Verstappen stamped his dominance in wet conditions at Spa to take pole for the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday, usurping George Russell after the Williams driver delivered the performance of his life to secure a shock front row start.
It was Russell who looked to have mastered a sodden but drying Spa-Francorchamps circuit, the Williams driver building confidence through the session to set purple sectors across the board to take provisional pole at the flag.
But title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen were still on laps, with Hamilton going purple in the second sector, but losing a bit of ground in the final sector to miss out by just 0.013s.
Then attention switched to Verstappen, who went purple in the second sector and then the final sequence of corners to snatch pole for the sixth time this season to the delight of the loyal Dutch contingent who have packed the grandstands all day at Spa in wet and cold conditions.
Russell held on to second for the second front row start of his career (his first came for Mercedes in Bahrain last year) and the first for Williams since Monza 2017.
Daniel Ricciardo secured his best qualifying performance since joining McLaren this year with fourth. Sebastian Vettel was fifth - his best start for Aston Martin, with Pierre Gasly continuing his fine qualifying for this season with his ninth top-six start in 12 Grands Prix this season - as Formula 1 saw six different teams fill out the top six positions. (ANI)