TGR Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban qualified 16th and 18th respectively for the Belgian Grand Prix, Round 10 of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

It was a tale of mixed fortunes in Q1 as Bearman progressed into the next phase of knockout qualifying in P16 while Ocon's session ended early, in P18. Both drivers ran two new sets of Pirelli P Zero Red softs on their VF-26s - Bearman's quickest time came on set two, producing a 1:47.113 to advance. Ocon's best was also produced on his second set of fresh softs - the Frenchman clocking a 1:47.801.

Bearman began Q2 on a used set of soft tires, recording a 1:47.590. Putting on a new set of red rubber for his final timed run, the Brit produced a fastest time of 1:46.779, placing him P16 at the checkered.

Ollie Bearman: "It was a tough day, and we weren't fast enough to be in the fight for Q3. We did our very best out there, and our very best was P16. It's a shame to be looking a bit more competitive in the previous session, but honestly, the others were probably not executing as cleanly as we were. In qualifying, everyone put it together, and in the end, I feel like I did one of my best qualifying sessions in terms of execution. All my laps were really well done and lap times were improving, so on that side, I'm happy. On the performance side, I'm not, none of us are happy, and we need to continue working, but the positive is that the car balance has taken a big step forward from the last event."

Esteban Ocon: "We knew it was going to be a tough session, as we have a big straight-line deficit compared to where we should be. In the first run, it was almost five-tenths in the straights that we were losing, so we were trying to lose less by getting closer to another car. The lap was good, the team was happy with it, and I was as well. I've done plenty of those here, and I was able to get through easily in the past. Now, with that difficulty plus some downforce loss on the rear, it was always going to be tricky. We did the maximum we could with what we have, and we'll keep pushing tomorrow."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It's been a bit of a mixture of a day because on Friday, we made good progress, and that carried on today with Ollie's car. He's very happy with the balance and the behavior of the car, and I think he almost got everything out of it in qualifying. There was one unfortunate incident on the final lap of Q2, where he knocked one of the steering wheel switches, and that cost a bit of lap time. Other than that, he's very happy with the car and got the maximum out of it. The team worked really well together, so that's the positive.

"On the flipside, Esteban wasn't happy with the car today. He was happy with the car in FP2, so we don't yet understand why that has happened, and you can see how far away he was. Even though there was an issue with deployment in qualifying as well, so the delta is bigger than it should've been, even without that, he wouldn't have matched Ollie's time today because he was not happy with the car. That wasn't the case yesterday, so we need to look into that. We've had this problem before as a team, with both drivers, so we will get to the bottom of it, but that's one of the things we're trying to improve. The good thing is when everything we've got is working how it should, both drivers are happy, so we know we're going in the right direction, we just need to put more performance into the car, but it's certainly one step forward."