Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of the brilliant Williams of George Russell, who was just 0.321 seconds behind the Red Bull driver.
Russell produced an excellent final lap in Q3 to hold provisional pole until being pipped by Verstappen at the very end of the session.
The Brit was ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who could only manage third in the Mercedes, 0.013 seconds behind Russell.
It was a dramatic final stage of qualifying which was halted soon after it began after Lando Norris had a huge crash at Raidillon.
The McLaren driver was the first man to begin a flying lap in Q3 and the conditions caught him out with further rain falling after Q2 forcing the drivers from intermediate tyres to wets.
Norris was able to walk away from the incident and a lengthy red flag period followed.
After the stoppage, Hamilton set the pace in the first flying runs but was beaten by Russell, who was then just edged out by Verstappen at the end of the session.
Daniel Ricciardo was an excellent fourth in the other McLaren ahead of Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin.
Behind, Pierre Gasly beat Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez to sixth.
Valtteri Bottas could only manage eighth in his Mercedes, and will also take a five-place grid penalty due to the incident he caused in Budapest before the summer break.
Esteban Ocon was ninth in the Alpine and Norris completed the top 10, but will likely start from the pitlane due to his impact with the barriers.