Max Verstappen has spent 2026 stranded in the midfield of the championship, seventh on 76 points with a Red Bull that has slid to fourth in the constructors' table. At Spa, for one lap at least, the old order flickered back to life.
Verstappen split the Mercedes pair and beat both McLarens to qualify second, 0.317s off Antonelli's pole and comfortably clear of Lando Norris in third. It was Red Bull's strongest Saturday in some time, and it came two weeks after Verstappen crashed out of the British Grand Prix and triggered the safety car that froze the finish.
A front-row start at a power circuit that has long suited his car gives Verstappen his best shot at a result in weeks — and a reminder, amid all the noise about his future, of what he can still wring out of a difficult season when the track plays to his hand.