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Lewis Hamilton expects Max Verstappen to go on the charge at the Belgian Grand Prix race on Sunday. The seven-time world champion, who qualified in P4 on Saturday, believes that the Dutchman will make some quick overtakes and contest for the race win and podium on Sunday.
Verstappen was the fastest driver on track during Saturday's qualifying after he clocked a time of 1:53.159, which was almost six-tenths faster than the driver in P2, Charles Leclerc. However, his grid penalty for taking an extra ICE will drop him down to P11.
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The Red Bull driver has been in a league of his own at Spa, topping the FP1 before ending his FP2 run in P3. On Saturday, he topped the FP3 and then took the pole position, only to be denied by his grid penalty.
Speaking about Verstappen's upcoming charge, Hamilton said during his post-qualifying interview,
"Max will make his way through pretty quick, I think their car is the fastest here this weekend. Or at least tied with McLaren.”
Hamilton qualified in P4, ahead of his compatriot and McLaren driver Lando Norris. However, he will move to the second row in P3 by virtue of Verstappen's grid penalty.
“For us, we’ll just keep our head down and try to hold position," the Mercedes driver stated. "I’m gonna see if I can keep up with the guys ahead of me, but I’ll give it everything. I’m hoping that the changes we made will be better for tomorrow.”
Hamilton's teammate George Russell qualified in P7, ahead of Carlos Sainz of Ferrari. Besides them, the top 10 consists of Sergio Perez who qualified in P3, Oscar Piastri in P4, and Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon in P9 and P10, respectively.
Tomorrow is a different day, says Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen claimed the pole position on Saturday, thanks to his superior wet-weather race craft. However, Sunday is expected to be a different day, and a warmer one.
"It was a nice qualifying, luckily the weather was okay, raining a little bit but we could still do a decent qualifying. The car was working quite well in the wet so I could just do my laps. Tomorrow is a different day, warmer, no rain," the Red Bull driver stated.
Max Verstappen started the race from P6 after taking a five-place grid penalty at the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix, and he went on to take the victory. It will be interesting to see if he can repeat his valiance come Sunday.
