Lewis Hamilton equalled Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68 pole positions in Formula 1 ahead of Sunday’s Belgium Grand Prix.
The lap Hamilton produced was a 1m42.553s, setting a new track record around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Title rival Sebastian Vettel could only get within two-tenths of the polesitter after coming back from a lacklustre first run in Q3.
Valtteri Bottas was third quickest but nearly half a second off Mercedes team-mate Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen suffered with tyre vibration issues throughout qualifying and could only manage fourth on the grid.
Behind the top four were the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo who secured fifth and sixth on the grid respectively.
Renualt’s Nico Hulkenberg ended qualifying in seventh place, ahead of both Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon from his former team, Force India. Team-mate Jolyon Palmer also made Q3 but was let down at the start of the session after a gearbox failure meaning the Briton will start tenth. However a grid penalty may follow.
Fernando Alonso nearly made it into Q3 with his underpowered McLaren-Honda but a power unit issue resulting in a loss of power on his final run meant he failed to advance. The McLarens effectively used slip-streaming throughout the sessions.
The Haas duo of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen dropped out of Q2 ending the session 12th and 13th respectively.
Carlos Sainz will start 14th for Sunday’s race.
Vandoorne has to take a 65-place grid penalty and therefore did not make a commited run in Q2 in an effort to save tyres for the race.
After 18 minutes of Q1, Williams’ struggles continued as Lance Stroll failed to make into the second part of qualifying for the fourth race in a row ending the session in 18th, team-mate Felipe Massa also did not make the cut and finished the session in 16th place, the Brazilian will also have to serve a five-place grid penalty after failing to slow under waved yellow flags in FP3.
Daniil Kvyat struggled to keep up with his Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz ending Q1 seven tenths of a second behind the Spaniard, he finished Q1 down in 17th place.
The Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein ended the session 19th and 20th respectively.
