After a brief absence, F1 made its return to the track at the Belgian GP on Friday. There were signs of Mercedes inching further closer to Red Bull, as hardly 0.1s were splitting the title contenders, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, through the FP2 session.
Hence, the focus now shifts to a rather crucial Saturday – the qualifying. It isn’t just about the top 4; the second practice session had only one second splitting the first-placed Verstappen to tenth-placed Sergio Perez.
Hence, it could well be an anything-can-happen Saturday, as both Alpine and Ferrari are looking solid. Not to forget Lando Norris, who has the potential to fire up his McLaren despite the early blues.
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Hence, amidst what could be an interesting qualifying session at Spa, let’s take an in-depth look at when and where to catch a glimpse of the action.
When and where to watch F1 qualifying at Belgian GP?
Let’s start with the local viewers in and around Belgium, including the Netherlands and parts of France and Germany. The session will start exactly at 3:00 PM local time. Just off the North Sea, the United Kingdom will witness the action take place an hour ahead, which is 2:00 PM.
Viewers around the UAE can watch the event at 5:00 PM while just east of the Gulf sea, India can watch the same at 6:30 PM. For Shanghai of China, the session will start at 9:00 PM, while it’s 10:00 PM for Tokyo, Japan.
And other eastern countries like Australia and New Zealand can watch the event unfold at 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM (+1 day) respectively.
Moving on to the western countries, the United States will be able to watch the event early on Saturday at 9:00 AM, and the same applies to Toronto of Canada as well.
Where to watch?
Now, looking at where to watch, as always, Belgium will come under RTBF and Telenet. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom can view the session through Sky Sports and Channel4. Sky will also broadcast to countries like Italy and Germany.
The United States can watch the session through ESPN while for Canada, it’s RDS. Ziggo holds the broadcasting rights for the Netherlands, while for Spain and Portugal, it’s F1 DAZN and Eleven Sports, respectively. And for India, the session will be broadcasted through Star Sports, and for other parts of Asia, Fox Sports will take over.
Weather during qualifying at Belgian GP
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While the early predictions suggested a wet FP1 and FP2, rains, as ever, showed up before and after both the sessions, leaving the track bone dry during the running.
Now, the prospects of rain remain extremely high during qualifying as well. But, it is early to invest full faith in the prediction. As of now, the chances of a wet session are around 90%.
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Hence, now it all depends on the luck of F1. Will the viewers manage to witness a wet or at least a damp qualifying at Spa? Or are we in for another disappointment?
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