Australia’s Formula One leader Oscar Piastri took pole position for the Saturday sprint by nearly half a second at the Belgian Grand Prix while McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris qualified third.

Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen will join Piastri on the front row for the first race since Christian Horner was dismissed as team boss and replaced with Laurent Mekies.

Piastri lapped the Spa-Francorchamps circuit with a best time of one minute 40.510 seconds, 0.477 seconds quicker than Verstappen and 0.618 clear of Norris.

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He was at risk of being eliminated after straying off track in the second part of the session but bounced back to pip Verstappen, who split the two dominant McLarens by relegating Norris to third, .618 off the pace.

The flying lap set a new record, too, seven tenths faster than Lewis Hamilton’s record from 2020.

“The car’s been mega all day,” said Piastri, who claimed his first sprint pole of the campaign.

“This is a track I love, it’s my favourite one of the year and maybe that gave me a couple of extra tenths (of a second).”

The Melburnian, who also set the pace in earlier practice, is eight points clear at the top after 12 of 24 rounds.

“It was a good lap. A little scare in SQ2 with the lap deletion. But thanks to the team, the car has been great and this is a track I love. Maybe that gave me a couple of extra tenths,” he said.

“The car has been in a good window since lap one and it is a track I always enjoy coming to.

“It is nice to get a result today.

“The Red Bulls were very quick in a straight line in practice. That makes life difficult in terms of it being the worst track to have pole position.”

There was a lot of love for Piastri on social media following his electrifying effort, with F1 fans stunned by his performance.

“OH. MY. WORD. Oscar Piastri’s sprint pole position laptime is OVER SEVEN TENTHS FASTER than the previous lap record … set by Lewis Hamilton in the MERCEDES W11,” Formula 1 God said on X (formerly Twitter).

And the F1 Republic said: “An unstoppable lap from the Aussie secured Sprint Pole ahead of Verstappen and Norris.”

F1 presenter Matt Gallagher said: “Oscar Piastri that is a PHENOMENAL lap ... nearly half a second clear!!!”

While a fan said: “That Piastri lap…. standing up and applauding ... that’s my driver.”

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc starts fourth but teammate Lewis Hamilton will line up 18th after a difficult afternoon for the seven-times world champion, whose most recent win came at the same circuit last year with Mercedes.

The Briton spun on his last flying lap while on course to go through, with the suspicion falling on a failure of the car’s rear axle.

George Russell, who finished first last year for Mercedes but was then disqualified for an underweight car, also struggled and qualified 13th.

McLaren team chief Andrea Stella told Sky Sports: “That was a pretty amazing lap by Oscar, he capitalised on everything available in the car.

“An almost perfect session from Oscar, except for the lap deletion in SQ2 which gave us a bit of a moment on the pit wall!”