Webber takes pole in Belgium

Mark Webber will start Sunday’s Belgium Grand Prix from pole position after setting the fastest time in the qualifying session.

It was held in typical Spa conditions and saw the Australian maintaining Red Bull’s extraordinary pole record – they’ve only missed one so far.

But the Championship leader will have his hands full at the start of the race as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton will line up alongside him on the front row of the grid.

Kubica and Vettel will share the second row.

Let’s have a look at how the session panned out :

Q1

The track was almost dry when the session started, although rain was looming.

Hence it was not a surprise to see the cars queuing at the end of the pitlane waiting for the light to go green.

Disaster struck almost instantly for Vitaly Petrov who lost his Renault at Turn 9. He spun and hit the wall, causing the session to be red-flagged less than two minutes after it kicked off. The rest of the field made it back to the pits and patiently waited for the stricken Renault to be cleared.

Cars were once again queuing at the end of the pitlane when the session restarted, as everyone was eager to get a time in before the expected rain. A few drops started to fall as they were completing their out-laps. A few of them spun at Stavelot on their flying laps as the rain intensified.

Hamilton and Button established their McLarens at the top of the timesheets while Sebastian Vettel had to content himself with P17. As his rivals pitted, the German stayed out on track and tried to improve his lap time to put himself in a safer position.

As the rain eased off, some other drivers joined him on track. He managed to move up to P3 while Trulli made his way up to P13. Sutil then improved to fifth. Finding himself in the drop zone, Robert Kubica went out for another run and set the fastest time.

Kamui Kobayashi lost his chance to improve when he slid off the track at Turn 8. His Sauber teammate Pedro de la Rosa followed suit seconds later and hit the tyre wall at Fagnes.

Rosberg eventually landed the fastest time ahead of both Williams of Hulkenberg and Barrichello. All the frontrunners made it safely through while Petrov, di Grassi, de la Rosa, Yamamoto, Senna, Kobayashi and Trulli were eliminated.

Q2

Although no rain was expected for Q2, the seventeen remaining drivers left the pits as soon as the track was opened. Lewis Hamilton set the early pace, but saw his best time eventually bettered by Kubica then Schumacher and Vettel.

The track was still damp in places and there were moments for Liuzzi, Button and Massa.

The 17 drivers came back on track in the final minutes of the session to try and make the most of the improving conditions.

Jenson Button was the first to do so and moved up from 13th to 1st. His teammate joined him at the front seconds later. Robert Kubica and Vettel split the McLarens by setting the 3rd and 2nd fastest times respectively.

Button stroke back as the session came to an end and reclaimed P2. Vettel was 3rd fastest with Webber 4th.

Both Mercedes of Schumacher and Rosberg were eliminated and will face grid penalties tomorrow – 10 places for Schumacher and 5 places for his teammate (gearbox change). Alguersuari, Liuzzi, Buemi, Kovalainen and Glock also went out.

Q3

The first timed laps saw Mark Webber take control at the front, as Hamilton had a bit of a moment at Rivage. Kubica was 2nd fastest in his Renault with Vettel 3rd for Red Bull. Alonso was only 9th fastest after this first run.

As the drivers were gearing up for a second and final effort, rain hit the track again. It didn’t prevent Hamilton from improving his time and moving up to P2 though.

The pole position stayed in the grasp of Mark Webber while his teammate qualified in 4th position behind Renault’s Robert Kubica.

Button was fifth with Massa sixth. Many expected Fernando Alonso to mount a big challenge for pole but the Spaniard only qualified 10th, behind Hulkenberg, Sutil and Barrichello.