Karun Chandhok makes McLaren title prediction after ‘cracking’ Lando Norris lap in Belgian Grand Prix qualifying

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Lando Norris edged Oscar Piastri to pole for the Belgian Grand Prix after a close and tense qualifying session for the pair.

Norris delivered a quick lap in the early parts of Q3 to go provisional pole, despite a late improvement from Piastri, who took off a tenth from his original run.

Piastri could only get to within 0.085s of Norris’ time to start alongside the Briton, as the increase in track temperature prevented most from improving their laps.

It is only the fourth pole for Norris in 2025, who looked slower than Piastri for most of the weekend as McLaren trimmed out the rear wing in between the Sprint race and qualifying after being beaten by Max Verstappen.

After seeing Norris’ lap, which was a 1:40.562, a new lap record for Spa Francorchamps, Karun Chandhok made one prediction as to how he thinks the title battle will pan out on the social media website X (formerly Twitter).

Karun Chandhok thinks McLaren title battle will go down to Abu Dhabi

Norris pleased Damon Hill when he took provisional pole for the Belgian GP, citing the psychological advantage it gave him heading into their final runs.

Chandhok now thinks that Norris has shown that he can compete with Piastri regularly, and predicts that it will be good in the title battle between the McLaren drivers.

“Cracking effort by Lando Norris – impressive to bounce back after looking a step behind yesterday.

“It’s going to be a brilliant race tomorrow, but more importantly, this title battle is going to keep going until Abu Dhabi!

“Both McLaren drivers are delivering high-quality stuff.”

Oscar Piastri showed that pole at Spa Francorchamps can be a headache in Sprint race

Piastri started from pole for the Belgian GP Sprint race but his advantage was brief in the opening stages when Verstappen, who started from second, managed to overtake him on the Kemmel Straight.

The tow that gets generated by the cars, coupled with the low downforce setup of the Red Bull enabled Verstappen to overtake with ease and effectively hang on to the win for the next 15 laps.

Piastri admitted after qualifying that he was aiming to start from second place, after what happened to him with Verstappen.

The Australian will be hoping to pull off a similar move on Norris to extend his title lead, as the pair edge closer in the Drivers’ Championship.