At the site of many key moments in Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 career, Lewis Hamilton tied the German legend’s total at the top of the all-time pole positions list grabbing top spot in qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps and setting a new all-time lap time record of the circuit.
Mercedes was expected to shine around the high-speed layout and the Briton proved it setting a blistering 1:42.553s, over four seconds faster than last year’s pole time as Sebastian Vettel left it late to grab second position after struggling for much of qualifying.
The German was helped by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen on two fronts as first he had to abort his final lap after making a mistake in Sector 2, having had the upper hand the whole weekend, but it delivered an opportunity for Ferrari to supply Vettel with a slipstream on the run from Stavelot to the Bus Stop which enabled him to improve.
Raikkonen had to settle for fourth behind Valtteri Bottas, as the second Mercedes driver was not satisfied with his car performance after finishing over half a second off his teammate’s pace.
Red Bull once again locked out the third row as their lack of qualifying engine modes hurt them, Max Verstappen was only three tenths off of third however and the Dutchman, who has around 80,000 fans from his native Holland cheering him on at Spa, was half a second ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo in fifth and sixth.
Renault surprised many by being the fastest of the midfield teams with Nico Hulkenberg in seventh but he had been behind his teammate Jolyon Palmer throughout the weekend before the Briton had to abandon Q3 with suspected gearbox oil pressure problem, leaving him down in 10th place.
The Force India duo have opted for a low downforce setup to be quick on the straights in the race and they will start eighth and ninth with Sergio Perez ahead of Esteban Ocon.
McLaren saw an opportunity, with Stoffel Vandoorne’s 65-place grid penalty, to use the home driver as support for his teammate by providing a tow along the Kemmel Straight to gain top speed and therefore negate some of their Honda power deficit.
Everything was going as planned with Fernando Alonso in the top 10 and the Spaniard was on course to make an unexpected Q3 appearance before losing power in the final sector and consequently losing out to Hulkenberg, instead finishing 11th.
The Haas team enjoyed a more competitive session with Romain Grosjean having the upper hand over Kevin Magnussen in the inter-team battle as they claimed 12th and 13th. Carlos Sainz was only able to produce a 14tth quickest time as Toro Rosso slipped back, having looked quick in practice.
Vandoorne grabbed 15th but will have to drop to the back of the grid following his 65-place grid penalty. That position will be taken by Lance Stroll as it was another qualifying to forget for Williams. The Canadian was actually 17th but moves up two positions due to penalties for his teammate Felipe Massa, who was due to drop five places for failing to slow for yellow flags in Practice 3 but will actually retain the 16th place in which he qualified.
The two Saubers were also set to drop five places after gearbox penalties but actually move up two places each with Marcus Ericsson 17th and Pascal Wehrlein 18th. Daniil Kvyat was 17th quickest and had a 20-place grid drop due to new engine parts after his failure in final practice and finally Vandoorne with his aforementioned 65 places for two new engines and a gearbox this weekend.
