Hamilton beats Rosberg to gain pole position for Belgian GP

Well that’s that ladies and genlemen, Lewis Hamiltn on pole yet again as Rosberg’s Friday dominance hails into insignificance.

Full report to follow. “If you’re behind it is very hard to overtake here”. Ferrari however have some work to do if they are to consolidate second place in the constructors standings.

The defending Formula One champion won his 10th pole of the season by leaving Rosberg almost half a second behind in qualifying.

“You then have to position the auto quickly on the right to ensure you carry good speed through Turn Nine and can get on the power nice and early”. Behind them will be Lotus’ other man Pastor Maldonado at seventh and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel at eighth.

But Rosberg said: “The problem is that we don’t really understand it. There are theories, but no real evidence”.

Q3: Times come flying in, Hamilton fastest now with a!:47:4. The German, who trails Hamilton by 21 points in the drivers’ championship, can not even get a look-in on Saturday afternoons.

It sent out an emphatic message to his Mercedes team-mate who left the track on Friday night believing he was “one step ahead” of Hamilton after dominating practice.

The top ten shootout is shaping up nicely!

“I imagine the starts in Spa will be a lot like [Budapest]”, said Hamilton. “We couldn’t find the problem”. With the mid field being so tight at the moment, it’s anyone’s guess. Racing will resume in a minute or so. Raikkonen’s retirement brought out the red flags. Force India’s Hulkenberg, however, was eliminated after Q2.

“I expect more unpredictable starts”.

He was unharmed in the incident and following a sterling fix job by his Lotus mechanics, emerged back on track midway through the second session.

Rosberg, however, seemed to remain unconvinced.

Rosberg and Hamilton were neck and neck through the first sector of their second runs, but Hamilton was simply irresistible over the rest of the lap and improved to a magnificent 1m 47.197s. Bottas was 1.340 seconds off the pace.

Will Stevens outqualified his teammate Roberto Merhi yet again and starts 17th. Vettel’s time within just 3/10ths of Bottas is certainly a competitive lap, but it wasn’t enough to get past ninth on the grid. Manor, Sauber?

Rosberg’s hopes of reigniting his title challenge may have deflated in the wake of Hamilton’s stunning performance.

The drivers will have to master the complicated start procedure without assistance from their engineers for the first time, with the results an unknown.

Williams will be confident of their chances today.

Mercedes in particular will be fretting about the rule change after both its cars recorded two horror starts at the last two rounds in Britain and Hungary, twice conceding the lead and once losing the race because of them. The hours of homework over the summer holiday will go out of the window when the five red lights go out. As the former friendship the pair had was tarnished.

But nothing can be taken for granted at Spa. “Doctors say the due date is next week, so let’s see”. However, historically Spa is not a circuit where starting on pole is crucial for race victory, meaning that an unpredictable battle is still likely tomorrow.