Carlos Sainz will start the first in the Belgian GP and Fernando Alonso third

Carlos Sainz will start without traffic this Sunday (4:00 p.m., Dazn) at Spa, the second time he has achieved it in his Formula 1 career, although

will not go up on his results account, but rather on Max's Verstappen.

The penalty derived from changing a large part of the Honda engine of his Red Bull will send him to 15th place, even though this Saturday, on the hills of the Belgian circuit, the current champion will show that he is in another league compared to the rest of his rivals.

Checo Pérez will accompany Sainz on the front row of the grid and Fernando Alonso will start third.

Since the sanctions were known, the obsession of the energetic team was only one: to get Verstappen, its flagship, the outstanding leader of the general points table, to start the race ahead of Charles Leclerc (16th), his direct rival for put it in some way – he is 80 points behind the Dutchman –, would come out ahead of the Monegasque.

The six tenths of margin that

he put Sainz, who finished second in qualifying, lead one to think that the idol of the stands – he was born in Belgium – is a firm candidate for victory.

“If I had done the lap that Max did, I too would be quite confident that I could win.

As long as something happens, or the safety car appears, you can reach the front seats without any problem.

At that rate, the simulations say it will appear ”, Sainz warned, grateful to his workshop neighbor for giving him slipstream on the lap that gave him that second fastest time.

The result of the maneuver was good;

the Ferrari execution, no.

CARLOS: “I'm happy to be starting on pole.

Obviously not so happy to see the gap to Max this weekend.

But to start from pole is a good start and we will try to win from there tomorrow"#BelgianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/WMOZnckuwC

– Formula 1 (@F1) August 27, 2022

The Maranello troop made a mistake in choosing the tires that they placed on Leclerc, who wasted a new game when the idea was to use a used one, a circumstance that left him with no possibility of reply.

The umpteenth shot in the foot that the Italian structure hits so far this year.

The

did the most difficult thing by reading better than anyone the new regulations that this season should shake the

of the World Cup.

He projected the fastest single-seater of all, something tremendously complicated if we take into account that Mercedes and Red Bull are measured, who have shared the last twelve titles;

five for the energy team (2010-2013 and 2021) and seven for the star team (2014-2020).

However, having the sharpest car of all is not enough when the strategy department of the Italian structure does not give one to the right, as has become clear in recent times.

In Monaco, a blunder that is not forgotten prevented Leclerc from taking a test that he had more than controlled – he was called to the workshop at the worst time and went from leading the peloton to rejoining the track in fourth.

At Silverstone it was Sainz who had to get serious on the radio and square his technicians, when they asked him for an impossible that motivated that "stop inventing" that has already been left for history.

In France, another discussion on the radio between the Spaniard and his guides once again underlined the lack of success of the red racing cars.

And the absolute collapse came in Hungary, the last stop on the calendar before the summer break, where the small waist of the strategists of

He finished with his two cars out of the spaces that give access to the box –Sainz was fourth and Leclerc, sixth–, when all the previous indications led to think of a double for those from Maranello.

In Budapest, the drop in temperature on Sunday altered the plans designed in all the garages, even though some reacted well – Red Bull changed the choice of Verstappen's compounds on the same grid – and others did not.

The holidays should serve to reset the minds and rejoin, in Belgium, with the batteries charged.

The timed blunder at Spa shows that time off is not always the answer.

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