Hamilton snatches pole in Belgium

In a stunning and dramatic end to qualifying in Belgium, it was Lewis Hamilton who would snatch his fourth consecutive pole position of the season.

Things got off to a wet start in Spa-Francorchamps for qualifying as the ever predictable rain made its appearance at the Belgian track, causing those first out to set their timed laps to do so on the intermediate Pirelli compound. An overall dry Q2 only made for another wet start to the third and final qualifying session of the afternoon, looking like it would be Paul di Resta who would take an amazing pole position for Force India. Short lived though, the track would once again dry allowing both Mercedes and Red Bull cars to push through and demote di Resta to fifth on the grid.

Whilst di Resta was the only man to start Q3 on the intermediate compound, everyone else on track quickly recovered to the pits upon realising that slicks would not do the job in the wet. Di Resta quickly took what looked like a guaranteed pole position and he returned to the pits. But with rain easing, the track dried out contention for pole position was once again on. Rosberg first took provisional pole, followed by Webber, and then Hamilton pushing di Resta further down the grid.

Once Vettel squeezed in between Hamilton and Webber for second, di Resta’s early efforts counted for little and will start from fifth on the grid alongside Jenson Button. A promising afternoon for McLaren sees the team well in contention for tomorrow’s race and a possible podium.

Lotus would settle for seventh and eight respectively for Grosjean and Raikkonen as the team struggled in the wet, whilst Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa line up ninth and tenth.

In the middle of the pack, Hulkenberg, Sutil and Perez did well to secure positions within the top half of the grid in the ever changing track conditions, and surprise Q2 contenders can der Garde, Bianch and Chilton took their best qualifying positions of the year; they will start from P14, 15 and 16 respectively.

By the time just half of the first qualifying session of the day had passed, all 22 drivers had set a timed lap in fear of the rain coming down harder at the beginning. Nico Rosberg led the pack early in the session, before the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber quickly locked out the front row for the remainder of the session midway into the session, still on the intermediate tyres. Just after the halfway mark, the rain stopped allowing the track to dry out and with just six minutes left in Q1, slick compounds were needed to make a fast lap.

As the chequered flag fell on Q1, the early session rain did a great job of mixing up the field and tyre strategy proved to be imperative. Whilst Alonso and Hamilton replaced the Red Bulls at the front for the session, it was the back of the grid that looked somewhat ‘different’ to the ‘usual’ back of the grid.

Maldonado was the first dropout, qualifying in P17 for tomorrow’s race with the two Toro Rosso cars of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo lining up just behind after struggling with their car setup all morning. Bottas qualified in twentieth in another poor qualifying weekend for the Williams outfit, whilst Sauber’s Gutierrez and Marussia’s Charles Pic make up the final row of the grid.

In what would turn out to be a risk that paid off, both Caterham and Marussia opted to go onto the slick tyres early into Q1 as the rain stopped. The resulting fast laps ensured that Jules Bianchi and both Caterham cars made it into the second qualifying session – Caterham’s van der Garde as high as P3 as the flag fell on Q1. Unable to make it into the third session, Caterham and Marussia’s success in Q1 is an important result and step forward for both teams.

Full qualifying times and results can be found below. The 2013 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix 2013 starts tomorrow, Sunday August 24th at 14:00 local time.