Double world champion Verstappen incurred a five-grid penalty for a change of gearbox on his Purple Bull demoting him to sixth for Sunday’s race.
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez will begin alongside Leclerc on the entrance row for the 12th race of the Components One season.
Verstappen, who leads the championship by 110 factors, gained at Spa-Francorchamps final 12 months from 14th on the grid.
“Final 12 months we had numerous penalties and I nonetheless gained the race in order that would be the purpose once more,” stated the Belgian-born Dutch driver.
Leclerc, eight-tenths of a second slower than Verstappen, stated: “Not a nasty qualifying for us, particularly in these circumstances. Let’s have a look at the way it goes.”
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz within the different Ferrari occupy the second row forward of McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Saturday options the third dash race of the F1 season after Azerbaijan and Austria, with qualifying for the standalone race scheduled for Saturday morning on the majestic Ardennes circuit.
Verstappen’s penalty doesn’t apply to the dash.
The Purple Bull ace was fortunate to squeeze into the third qualifying session with a late lap to climb to 10th in Q2 and admitted he had battled the drying circumstances all through the session.
“It was very tight. The circumstances had been actually tough and on my closing lap in Q2 I did not have that confidence to push, however in Q3 we had two tyre units so we had extra probability to push,” he reported.
Verstappen might be in search of to reel off his eighth consecutive win this 12 months.
Each Leclerc and Perez expressed some reduction at surviving the session efficiently following earlier strategies that it was potential qualifying could be cancelled if the climate had made it harmful to race on the monitor.
After a rain-hit apply session earlier within the day, qualifying befell in improved circumstances after a delayed begin.
The circumstances remained inconsistent and treacherous partly and it was little shock when Esteban Ocon slapped the boundaries at Flip 9 in Q2, breaking a part of his Alpine’s entrance wing, because the instances tumbled.
Hamilton, George Russell, Norris, Yuki Tsunoda of Alpha Tauri and Piastri all topped the instances within the closing frantic minutes as Verstappen was pushed out to 11th, recovering to wind up 10th and squeeze by means of to the shootout.
Tsunoda ended up 11th and out together with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Alfa Romeo’s Bottas and Ocon.
After clearing up the particles from Ocon’s damaged wing, the top-ten shootout started with Fernando Alonso main a 10-car practice of pairs of vehicles from the highest 5 groups.
On their first runs, it was Leclerc on prime forward of Verstappen with Sainz third within the second Ferrari and the 2 McLarens. Hamilton and Russell did extra laps to enhance to sixth and ninth.
Leclerc set the tempo with a fast flip in 1:46.988, leaving Sainz and Piastri to go second and third initially earlier than Verstappen blasted to the highest in 1:46.168, by eight-tenths – a surprising lap.
