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Lewis Hamilton qualifies third despite crash in practice• Leclerc 0.748sec ahead of teammate Sebastian VettelCharles Leclerc took pole for the Belgian
Grand Prix with a dominant lap of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, confidently seeing off the challenge from his
Ferrari teammate
Sebastian Vettel, who was in second. Lewis Hamilton’s third place was reward for hard work by his Mercedes mechanics, who had to work flat out to get the car ready for qualifying after he crashed out in third practice on Saturday morning. His teammate Valtteri Bottas was in fourth in front of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Leclerc, who had been on superb form all weekend, had the measure of the circuit to such an extent that he was almost untouchable. He set a blistering lap on his first run in Q3 with a 1min 42.644sec, a full six-tenths clear of Hamilton in second, but went on to better it on his second run. His ultimate pole time was 1:42.519.