Lando Norris said Oscar Piastri's advantage in practice at the Belgian Grand Prix had been overestimated after beating his McLaren team-mate to pole in qualifying.
Norris went into Formula One's mid-season break off the back of consecutive victories at the Austrian and British Grands Prix, as he cut Piastri's lead at the top of the drivers' championship standings.
Norris was outpaced by his title rival in practice on Friday, while he also finished third in Saturday's sprint race, with Piastri missing out to Max Verstappen.
But Norris beat his team-mate to pole by just 0.085 seconds later in the day, with Piastri ultimately unable to overhaul a strong first lap from the Brit in Q3.
Speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying, Norris said: "Everyone was pretty worried after yesterday. I wasn't even that far off, it was just a couple of little issues that we had.
"I was confident after yesterday and confident coming into today, so it was nice to see I could get back to the top.
"[Friday's gap] was just slipstream and not being first out of the pit lane, so it was nothing to worry about. But people like to make a lot of things up, but I felt good.
"The car has been flying all weekend, Oscar has been doing a good job all weekend, so we are pushing each other a lot."
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified in third, with Verstappen dropping to fourth as a result of errors on his final lap.
Williams' Alex Albon was fifth with the Mercedes of George Russell in sixth.
Yuki Tsunoda was seventh – the best qualifying performance by Red Bull's second car all season – ahead of the Racing Bulls duo, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, will start from 16th, having been eliminated from the first session when his final lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Qualifying top 10
1. Lando Norris (McLaren)
2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
5. Alex Albon (Williams)
6. George Russell (Mercedes)
7. Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
8. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
9. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
10. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
