Hamilton takes pole at Spa

Spa, 24 Aug 2013: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG Petronas took the pole position ahead of Red Bull’s duo championship leader Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber for the Belgian Grand Prix FIA Formula One World Championship on Sunday  at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Lewis Hamilton took pole for Mercedes in a dramatic, rain-swept qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps.

Four drivers held pole position in the last few seconds of qualifying for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix. With spray flying up from the wet track, Nico Rosberg’s stellar effort for Mercedes gave him a provisional pole but team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel had made it across the line just before the chequered flag appeared, giving the huge Spa-Francorchamps crowd an exciting two minutes, waiting to see if they could knock the Monaco and Silverstone winner off top spot.

Conditions possibly improved in those last two minutes, though any gain was marginal. Webber crossed the line first and took P1. He held it for seconds only, however, as Vettel blasted through and took a tenth out of his time. For the briefest instant it was the Red Bull 1-2 that practice pace had suggested – but then Hamilton arrived to take his fifth pole of the season and fourth in succession. His time of 2:01.012 was two-tenths of a second better than Vettel had managed.

“I feel I’m able to find the limits when the conditions are really on the edge,” said a jubilant Hamilton. “I pushed quite a lot in the middle sector particularly as I thought I was down three seconds, so I was really caning it.”

At the start of Q3, there was a degree of chaos with most of the field going out on Option tyres. With drops of rain already falling, it was a gamble – and one that failed to pay off with the slick runners all returning to the pits at the end of their out lap. “It was quite entertaining because it started to rain pretty heavily,” observed Vettel.

The one exception was Paul di Resta. Starting the session on intermediates he had the track to himself and took P1 by default. With the possibility of conditions worsening, he had an excellent chance of repeating Giancarlo Fisichella’s 2009 feat and taking a Force India pole at Spa – but the rain receded and he had to settle for fifth position.

Behind Di Resta, Jenson Button took sixth for McLaren, ahead of Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Kimi Räikkönen who took seventh and eighth, while row five was an all-Ferrari affair with Fernando Alonso ninth and Felipe Massa tenth.

Qualifying had taken place in mixed conditions from the start: rain began to fall a few minutes before Q1 began. It was no surprise, though, as the radar had been showing the weather on its way for some time. It meant the session began on intermediate tyres but when the rain ceased partway through the 20minutes, the track began to dry quickly. Backmarkers with nothing to lose took a risk and ventured out on dry tyres. It paid dividends for the Marussia pair of Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi who qualified for their first Q2. Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde also made the cut. Eliminated were the Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas, Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo from Toro Rosso, Sauber’s Esteban Gutiérrez and Caterham’s Charles Pic.

Q2 was dry and saw the times drop by over ten seconds. With three drivers out of position and unlikely to challenge for a place in Q3, the battle was essentially between 13 cars competing for ten places. In a hard-fought battle the drivers to drop out were Nico Hülkenberg for Sauber in 11^th, Force India’s Adrian Sutil in 12^th and McLaren’s Sergio Pérez 13^th. They were joined by Van der Garde 14^th, Bianchi 15^th and Chilton 16^th, each of the latter three enjoying a career-best qualifying position.

His teammate,  Nico Rosberg qualified in fourth positions  after an eventful wet-dry qualifying session. Stats by Mercedes team:

• Lewis took the team’s eighth pole position in the past nine races and his fourth consecutive pole this afternoon
• Nico qualified fourth and was fastest of all until the dying moments of the qualifying session
• Four Mercedes-Benz powered cars qualified in the top six and it was the third Mercedes pole in five years at Spa
• Weather forecasts currently predict similar mixed weather conditions for tomorrow afternoon’s race

Lewis Hamilton 
A fourth pole in a row just feels fantastic! The team did a great job to get the timing at the end of Q3 absolutely perfect and I was in exactly the right track position. I was so surprised when I came across the line to hear I was P1. I went wide in the first corner and I thought I was down on time from the read-out on my steering wheel. I just kept pushing and did a strong middle sector, then I could see I was catching Sebastian towards the end so it was a great feeling. I hope we can try and fight it out tomorrow, whatever the conditions. The Red Bulls are still ahead of us in terms of performance so results like this feel even more special because I know I’ve got the absolute maximum out of myself and out of the car.

Nico Rosberg 
It was a very difficult qualifying session and unfortunately luck wasn’t on my side today. When I took the chequered flag, I was quickest at that time, but the track quicker and quicker for the guys who had got the extra lap and eventually ended up in the top three positions, so I must be happy with fourth place on the grid. Our car seems pretty good in all conditions here this weekend which makes me hopeful of a strong race performance tomorrow afternoon.

Ross Brawn 
It was obviously a very tricky session for everybody this afternoon and we were far from perfect but we did enough things right to get the job done. In the closing seconds of Q3, track position was critical and Lewis – running last on the road on the final lap – did a great job with the opportunity he had. We were not sure how it would turn out as DRS had been disabled for that final lap, then we saw his time in the second sector and started to get excited. Nico didn’t get the extra lap but he was fastest of all when his session ended and it’s a fantastic team result to have two cars starting in the top four after such a mixed qualifying. We are expecting similar conditions tomorrow so we will have a good chance of success. But we will have to run a smart race and make the right decisions to do achieve it.

Toto Wolff 
That was a very tough qualifying session and another one where it was easier to get things wrong than right. It was very close indeed for Lewis in Q2 when he made it through by just two-hundredths of a second and that showed how challenging the entire hour was in terms of tactics and strategy. It was crucial to get on track at the right time and our result in Q3 was a great team performance. Both drivers produced special laps: Nico was top of the timesheets when he took the chequered flag and then Lewis delivered another of his magic laps, especially in the middle sector. Our engineers have clearly found a good set-up for these mixed conditions and we are expecting more of the same kind of weather tomorrow.

2013 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying times

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2:01.012
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 2:01.200
3 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 2:01.325
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2:02.251
5 Paul di Resta Force India 2:02.332
6 Jenson Button McLaren 2:03.075
7 Romain Grosjean Lotus 2:03.081
8 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus 2:03.390
9 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2:03.482
10 Felipe Massa Ferrari 2:04.059

11 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber 1:49.088
12 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:49.103
13 Sergio Pérez McLaren 1:49.304
14 Giedo van der Garde Caterham 1:52.036
15 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:52.563
16 Max Chilton Marussia 1:52.762

17 Pastor Maldonado Williams 2:03.072
18 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 2:03.300
19 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 2:03.317
20 Valtteri Bottas Williams 2:03.432
21 Esteban Gutiérrez Sauber 2:04.324
22 Charles Pic Caterham 2:07.384

ends