Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Getty Images

It has not been the best of weekends for McLaren. The car has not looked that competitive and Carlos Sainz failed even to make it out of first qualifying - although that was more to do with timing than competitiveness. He’d run used tyres on his first lap and then got caught out by the red flag at the end of the session.

Lando Norris ended up 12th and explained: “We are not super-competitive on the straight and we are not super-competitive in the corners. And both of them don’t go well together. It’s a combination of lower downforce and some longer corners - we need to have good efficiency in the car and we seem to be struggling a bit in the straights and corners. We have a good car but this track we don’t show any of the strengths or weaknesses. A lot of the other teams are either very good in the straights and not so good in the corners or the other way around. We are kind of OK everywhere. So it’s not too bad but we just hoped it could be a bit better.”

Kimi Raikkonen is known as the King of Spa, particularly for that epic battle with Lewis Hamilton in 2008, although Michael Schumacher has the most race wins there.

Raikkonen has one pole position in Spa - in 2007 when he also won the race - but four race wins just at this one circuit.

That's quite impressive.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Getty Images

Alexander Albon has targeted “points, obviously” for his first race with Red Bull. It’s hard to judge the Anglo-Thai’s progress in absolute terms because not only is this his first experience of the Red Bull but he has spent the entire weekend focusing on the race. His first run in qualifying was the first time he had tried the car on low fuel.

And in Q2 he abandoned his lap, done to get more of a feel for the car, before the Bus Stop to ensure he did not make it into Q3. So the only real gauge is that on that lap, he was 0.3secs slower than team-mate Max Verstappen in the middle sector. Which in the circumstances, is a very decent effort.

“Yeah, it was good,” Albon agreed. “I was actually quite happy with the lap that I stopped pushing for. Just getting used to it. The car felt pretty good as well. And of course we didn’t push everything for qualifying, we were definitely just more focused for the race.”

His approach to Sunday? “Firstly, finish the race, keep on the black stuff, really just see how it goes. There are some cars in front of us that are quite quick down the straights and we’ll be wary of that. The race runs weren’t easy for me on Friday and then P3 started off difficult but by the second run I really started to understand the car more and how to manage the tyres, because it is different to Toro Rosso. That was pretty much it. The other thing is we’re going to be going through the field so trying to keep the tyres alive while going through won’t be easy but that’s part of it.”

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As more tributes come in for Anthoine Hubert, four-time F1 world champion, and Renault non-executive director Alain Prost says: “It is a hard day for the racing community. It was very sad and very tough for us. As you know, he was a member of our Academy, and it was a tough day with the family there and friends and brother.

“I pushed him in the Academy, we were talking very often. He was a nice kid, very intelligent, very clever, very curious.

“He did some tests in F1 this year with us in Austria. We had a programme already fixed since yesterday in F2 next year. We wanted to help him maybe until F1, so it is very sad. There are no words. 22 is much too young I am sure."

The most successful in terms of race wins in Belgium is Michael Schumacher with six.

Lewis Hamilton has retired four times at Spa - more times than at any other circuit, and he had his 2008 victory stripped for cutting the chicane.

Vettel was, of course, last year's winner in Belgium and he only has one pole position.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Reuters

Max Verstappen - said he was not that interested in whether he had his tyres in the optimum place for his lap, or a tow, because: “Worst-case scenario I would be fifth, best case scenario I would be fifth, so… I was like, OK, they are just queuing up, so I am just going to stay behind them, I have nothing to lose.”

He fears that in the race the Ferraris will be too fast to challenge would have been fifth in the Red Bull. “I expect the Ferrari cars to be ahead because with their top speed even if you would be faster than them you wouldn’t get them on the straight,” he said. “They are a bit difficult to beat. They have the top speed advantage so they can look after the tyres a bit more in the corners. You need to have a really good exit from the first corner so I’m not sure.”

Lewis Hamilton, though, is less convinced about the invincibility of the Ferraris. “In the long run we can at least give them a bit of a challenge,” he said. “I think a bit of the straight speed, which is where generally all the speed is, it’s usually not there so much in the race, so hopefully we’ll be there or thereabouts with them and can put in maybe some interesting strategies.”

Since we published the expected starting line-up, Antonio Giovinazzi has been hit with a five-place grid penalty, so he's now 18th.

In this race Sainz, Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Albon, Kvyat, Stroll, Giovinazzi and Kubica all have some sort of penalties.

So we now line up like this...

BBC Weather's Ian Fergusson says earlier showers have faded although risk of rain is 40%.

The Observer writes "Spa in mourning after Hubert dies in F2 crash", and "Leclerc in charge with Hamilton taking third".

While The Sunday Times writes "Leclerc ready to seize his chance".

Image source, .

Earlier this week the provisional calendar for 2020 was announced and it is going to be a busy season next year, with 22 countries on the list.

Vietnam and the Netherlands come into the season early on, but there is no room for Germany on the list - a real shame after some fantastic racing at Hockenheim last month.

Will today be the day Ferrari change that number of wins from 0 to 1 next to either Charles Leclerc or Sebastian Vettel's name?

Image source, .

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Getty Images

If Ferrari’s race pace is a concern, within the team so too it is for Charles Leclerc compared to Sebastian Vettel. After the last race in Hungary, where Vettel was able to run a longer first stint by keeping his tyres in better condition, and then catch and pass Leclerc at the end, Leclerc acknowledged he still had some work to do on his tyre management in races. And just as he did with his approach to qualifying earlier this season, he has been doing exactly that.

“I’ve been analysing quite a lot Hungary,” Leclerc said. “Actually, maybe it looked worse than it actually was but there’s definitely some work to do on my side on this. I changed a few things - very small things - but details always makes the difference at this level. So, yeah, we’ll see (in the race) if it’s any better.”

The Sunday Telegraph says: "Hamilton leads tributes to race crash victim"

Image source, .

The Sunday Mirror says "Lewis tribute to tragic Hubert".

Image source, .

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Getty Images

Can Ferrari finally deliver on their staccato promise and deliver a win this season? That remains to be seen. But this is certainly one of the best chances they’re going to get for the rest of the year. With a front-row lock-out, they could not be in a better position.

Having two cars up front means they should be able to protect to some degree from Lewis Hamilton slipstreaming them up to Les Combes on lap one - but of course there is the issue of them racing each other. After that, how will their race pace be? On Friday, it looked quite weak, the car sliding too much in the long corners and going through its tyres faster than the Mercedes and Red Bull as a result.

The cooler temperatures on Sunday - it’s down to 19C from 29C - should help. But as Charles Leclerc said after qualifying three-quarters of a second clear of Hamilton’s Mercedes: “The gap is quite big today but it doesn’t mean it will be like that tomorrow, so we will working hard to improve on the race run we did yesterday and we will see.”

And here are some more...

Every driver and team will carry a special marker in respect to Anthoine Hubert during today's race.

Image source, Getty Images

We have live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra from 14:00 BST.

David M: thank you, Andrew Benson, for your article Why the motorsport family races on. A measured, informative and respectful piece of writing.

Andrew Priestley: Sadly it takes an event such as this to remind us & put into perspective the danger these drivers endure and commit themselves to every time they step into a racing car. #19

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Reuters

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate the dominance achieved by Charles Leclerc in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix. It was somewhat lost as the tragic events of Saturday afternoon unfolded, but the 21-year-old was 0.748 seconds quicker than anyone else - including his four-time world champion team-mate in the same car.

Sebastian Vettel grumbled about the traffic and not having his tyres in the right condition and that being important for him, and losing “quite a lot of time” in the middle sector. But Vettel was in the same ‘tow group’ as Leclerc, as the five front-runners circulated together on both qualifying runs. It’s very rare to see such large gaps between team-mates, even on a long track such as Spa, so it seems fair to say that this was a landmark achievement by Leclerc.

“It obviously feels amazing,” he said. "It was very tricky, especially in Q3 I struggled quite a lot. The start of the lap was always very, very messy, because there was quite a lot of traffic with all the cars around but in the end I managed to do the full lap correctly and I’m very happy. I definitely did not expect to be that much ahead, but very happy with my lap anyway.”