The summer break is over and it’s time to get back to racing in Formula 1. And where better to resume the season than the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit? Today was the first time in nearly a month to see who had the speed and who would take pole for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix. And the answer, much as it has been in the last 6 races, is…
Mercedes’ Hamilton picks up where he left off with 6th straight Pole, Rosberg 2nd fastest; Bottas boosts Williams with P3 in Qualifying
Photos via GrandPrix247.com
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, the current Drivers’ Championship leader, came back from the summer break and his slow-paced Caribbean vacation just as fast as ever. In typical fashion, the Englishman wrung every ounce of performance out of his car at mythic Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday to grab his 6th consecutive pole position. That made it an astonishing 10 poles for Hamilton in 11 races so far in 2015. Possessing the fastest chassis by far and the fastest driver, the Mercedes factory team has now clinched pole in every race this season. Hamilton’s teammate and closest championship pursuer, German Nico Rosberg, was perhaps running slightly more downforce after his harrowing blown-tire shunt in Friday practice and took P2 to lock out the front row for the Silver Arrows yet again.
Williams got a nice lift after a string of lackluster pre-break results when young Finn Valtteri Bottas was able to secure P3 on the grid. It was a very good effort from Bottas, who surely must have been smarting after learning the news that Ferrari had re-signed the enigmatic and erratic Kimi Raikkonen through next year’s season despite all speculation to the contrary. Bottas’ Williams teammate, former Ferrari hand Felipe Massa, was not as quick in the same machinery and could muster no better than the 7th best time of the day. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean had a remarkably good performance to come home P4 for the troubled team, easily the surprise of the session. However, the Frenchman will still have to serve a 5-spot grid penalty for a gearbox change on Friday. His teammate, the much-maligned Pastor Maldonado, was also unusually strong with the eighth fastest time in Q3. Also stepping up his game was Force India’s Sergio Perez who grabbed an impressive 5th spot on the grid and really seemed to get the most out of his car on this tricky, high speed course.
At the other end of the spectrum Red Bull and Ferrari must have been extremely disappointed, with both teams getting only one car through to the final shootout in Q3. Daniel Ricciardo took P6 but his teammate Daniil Kvyat was bounced out in Q2 and will start P12 after finishing runner up in the last race at the Hungaroring. It was arguably even worse for Ferrari, with their race winner in Hungary, Sebastian Vettel, unable to do better than a P9 start at Spa and the star-crossed Raikonnen suffering what sounded like terminal transmission failure in Q2. The Finnish veteran, who was retained by Ferrari for next year despite all the prevailing omens, will have to fight his way up from 14th on the grid. 20-year-old Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz grabbed the last spot in the top 10, outdoing his 17-year-old teammate, Max Verstappen (P15), who didn’t really push his car after some drive issues in Q2 because he will face a large grid penalty for engine changes anyway.
Top 10 Qualifiers for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix:
| POS. | NO. | DRIVER | TEAM | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | LEWIS HAMILTON | MERCEDES | 1:48.908 | 1:48.024 | 1:47.197 | 16 |
| 2 | 6 | NICO ROSBERG | MERCEDES | 1:48.923 | 1:47.955 | 1:47.655 | 17 |
| 3 | 77 | VALTTERI BOTTAS | WILLIAMS | 1:49.026 | 1:49.044 | 1:48.537 | 19 |
| 4 | 8 | ROMAIN GROSJEAN | LOTUS | 1:49.353 | 1:48.981 | 1:48.561 | 17 |
| 5 | 11 | SERGIO PEREZ | FORCE INDIA | 1:49.006 | 1:48.792 | 1:48.599 | 16 |
| 6 | 3 | DANIEL RICCIARDO | RED BULL RACING | 1:49.664 | 1:49.042 | 1:48.639 | 17 |
| 7 | 19 | FELIPE MASSA | WILLIAMS | 1:49.688 | 1:48.806 | 1:48.685 | 15 |
| 8 | 13 | PASTOR MALDONADO | LOTUS | 1:49.568 | 1:48.956 | 1:48.754 | 17 |
| 9 | 5 | SEBASTIAN VETTEL | FERRARI | 1:49.264 | 1:48.761 | 1:48.825 | 17 |
| 10 | 55 | CARLOS SAINZ | TORO ROSSO | 1:49.109 | 1:49.065 | 1:49.771 | 1 |
Complete Qualifying results via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix will also see the debut of a refinement to the starting rules by banning team communication to the drivers as regards clutch bite point and other on-the-fly adjustments durning the warm up laps. That assumed lack of precision could make for a tricky and possibly dangerous start, as the drivers will have to figure out the perfect bite point themselves, which could lead to a stalled car in front of others rocketing forward or just a lurching start in general. Hopefully, despite the good intention of returning more control of the racing to the drivers, the FIA hasn’t gone two steps back on safety.
Tune in tomorrow to see how that tricky start shakes out and whether Mercedes can get back to dominating races the way they’ve dominated qualifying throughout the year. Who knows, maybe a wild card like Force India’s Sergio Perez will finally pull off a major upset on a track that seems to suit him? Find out how it all goes down live on NBC Sports Network here in the states starting at 8AM Eastern. Hope to see you then!