Lando Norris bites back at Spa with pole triumph over Oscar Piastri

Lando Norris has taken pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, beating team-mate Oscar Piastri to the top spot by less than one-tenth of a second.

The battle for pole came down to the two McLarens, but only Piastri managed to improve on his final effort.

It was not enough to beat Norris' initial attempt however, allowing the Briton to seal pole position one day on from Piastri's crushing defeat around Spa-Francorchamps.

Charles Leclerc managed to pip Max Verstappen to third place, while Alex Albon left it late to bag a sensational fifth-place result for Williams.

A nightmare day was endured by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli - the two usual Q3 contenders were unable to advance out of the first stage of qualifying for the second day running.

George Russell was sixth in the other Mercedes, while Yuki Tsunoda had his best qualifying performance for some time with a run to seventh.

Both Racing Bulls progressed into the top 10, with Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson ending the day in eighth and ninth respectively.

Gabriel Bortoleto produced another strong performance and put himself in the top 10 for the start of the race on Sunday.

Both Haas' narrowly missed out on a spot in the top 10, with Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman ending the day in 11th and 12th.

Pierre Gasly was 13th in the leading Alpine car, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, fresh from his podium at Silverstone earlier this month.

Sainz could not repeat his heroics from the sprint shootout and ended the day in 15th, marking a disappointing result for the Spaniard.

Hamilton's tough weekend at Spa-Francorchamps continued as he failed to exit the opening segment of qualifying.

Having started the sprint race from towards the back of the grid, the Ferrari driver is set for the same fate on Sunday after clocking the 16th fastest lap in Q1.

Hamilton originally believed he had made it through, before his lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4.

Joining Hamilton in the first drop zone were rookies Franco Colapinto and Kimi Antonelli, who ended the day in 17th and 18th respectively.

Aston Martin endured a shocker of a result, having appeared to make gains at recent race events with upgrades.

The Silverstone-based squad was by far the slowest team in qualifying, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll locking out the last two spots on the timesheet.