Leclerc nicks Belgian GP pole from Perez

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc sniped Belgian Grand Prix pole from Sergio Perez in what had otherwise been a Red Bull-dominated Formula 1 qualifying session.

As foreshadowed by practice earlier on Saturday, championship leader Max Verstappen looked comfortably a step ahead of the opposition in all three segments - all three taking place on a wet but drying track, as rain threatened to intensify but never really did - and topped the timesheets accordingly in the end.

His second Q3 lap was marginally worse than his first but still half a second better than what anyone else had managed - but because of a new internal combustion engine this weekend he will start 11th.

Instead, it looked for most of Q3 like Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez would score his first pole in over a year.

Perez narrowly avoided Q2 elimination but a lap on usedd intermediates in the early stages of the final segment, though six tenths off Verstappen's corresponding effort, lifted him to provisional pole.

However, the Ferraris had left their run on a fresh set for the closing minutes, and while Carlos Sainz didn't capitalise, Leclerc did, outpacing Perez by 0.011s.

Lewis Hamilton will start third, having narrowly missed out on inheriting pole in the Mercedes, while Lando Norris headed McLaren's efforts on a disappointing day for the Woking-based team.

Norris was eight tenths off Verstappen and two tenths off Leclerc, but will at least get on the second row, with team-mate Oscar Piastri sharing row three with Hamilton's team-mate George Russell.

Russell appeared largely neck-and-neck with Hamilton for most of qualifying, but wound up three tenths adrift in Q3.

Sainz's untidy lap late in Q3 left him down in seventh on the grid, followed by Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso and Alpine's Esteban Ocon.

Alex Albon had come within 0.003s of denying his Red Bull successor Perez a spot in Q3, but moves up to 10th due to Verstappen's penalty.

Verstappen will be followed by Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Daniel Ricciardo (RB) on the grid.

Valtteri Bottas could do no better than 14th in the upgraded Sauber despite getting to run in the last moments of Q2, while Lance Stroll was well adrift in 15th.

The Canadian, whose AMR24 had to be repaired after a shunt in free practice but who did make it through Q1, bled away time across all three sectors to end up almost a second and a half off Alonso in the second segment.

Haas was the only team to suffer a double elimination in Q1, with Nico Hulkenberg two tenths up on Kevin Magnussen but three tenths off advancing.

Yuki Tsunoda placed 18th for RB, outqualified handily by team-mate  Ricciardo after a big slide at La Source - but always destined to start last anyway due to having taken on a full set of engine components for the weekend.

He will thus move behind the likes of Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Zhou Guanyu (Sauber), both failing to get a proper lap in when the track was at its best at the very end of Q1 - with Sargeant compromised by going wide through La Source and having Verstappen dive down his inside.

Zhou was also involved in an altercation with Verstappen, having blocked the Red Bull driver, and takes a three-place grid penalty - though it will not affect his starting position.