After dominating practice yesterday, it will come as very little surprise to find out that Mercedes have indeed locked out the front row for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Nico Rosberg will start from pole position for the fourth race in a row after seeing off Lewis Hamilton in the final part of qualifying today.
The German driver had the edge on the Briton when it mattered in Q3, with his provisional pole time proving to be enough to beat Hamilton. He even went a little bit quicker at the end just for good measure.
After a rather hectic Thursday and Friday at Spa, Saturday seemed rather quiet in comparison. The weather certainly couldn’t make its mind up, going from sunshine to hail and back again in a matter of minutes ahead of qualifying.
Typical Spa, eh?
NEWS FROM THE PADDOCK
- Adrian Newey has said that the Belgian Grand Prix is all about damage limitation for Red Bull.
- Fernando Alonso believes that Carlos Sainz Jr. will make F1 sooner or later despite his snub from Toro Rosso.
- VIDEO: Watch Alonso take on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
- Lewis Hamilton wants to beat Nico Rosberg when the German is at the peak of his powers, believing that it is “more painful” that way.
- Rosberg had the edge in qualifying, though, securing what he called an “awesome” pole position.
- Hamilton’s efforts were not aided by a brake problem in the final part of the session.
- Sebastian Vettel feels that he could not have finished any higher than P3 at Spa today.
- Nico Hulkenberg was a surprise casualty of Q1, qualifying 18th.
- McLaren racing director Eric Boullier has said that the team will not wait until the end of the season before confirming its driver line-up for 2015.
- Jules Bianchi enjoyed an impressive qualifying at Spa for the second year in a row, getting into Q2.
- Fernando Alonso matched his best qualifying result of the season today.
- Bernie Ecclestone has no concerns about taking F1 to Russia in six weeks’ time.
THOUGHTS FROM THE TRACK
Spa certainly knows how the throw up a surprise or two. It has been quite a comeback weekend for Formula 1 following its summer break, even if the end result in qualifying was as expected: an all-Mercedes front row.
The battle between Rosberg and Hamilton in qualifying was an entertaining one, especially at the end. Hamilton lost his first flying lap after locking up at La Source, but his second was very close to Rosberg’s time. In the end, he fell just a couple of tenths short, with Rosberg improving his own time at the end just for good measure.
Hamilton lamented a problem on his front-left brake which might have denied him his first pole position since the Spanish Grand Prix at the beginning of May, nearly four months ago. However, he was still pretty pleased with P2 given his recent run of rotten luck in qualifying. It marks his first top five start since the Canadian Grand Prix in June.
Rosberg is the winner today, though, even if Hamilton does think that he’ll be better off starting second. The swords are drawn for a thrilling intra-team battle at the front tomorrow.
The weather was very Spa-like today. One hour ahead of qualifying, an almighty downpour began that made us question whether qualifying would start on time. By the time it did, the rain had stopped and was replaced by perpetual drizzle that lasted until the beginning of Q3 when the sun made an appearance.
After qualifying, the GP2 race began with a bit of rain falling, but was soon red flagged when it became torrential. By the end of the feature race, it was sunny again!
The GP2 race was a thriller, with McLaren and Ferrari juniors Stoffel Vandoorne and Rafaelle Marciello putting on an epic duel at the front. You can watch the highlights at 7.30pm ET on NBCSN.
Doing the rounds on the rumor mill today, it has been reported by a number of sources – including veteran F1 journalist Adam Cooper – that Kamui Kobayashi’s future at Caterham is looking bleak. Red Bull junior Carlos Sainz Jr. and Formula Renault 3.5 driver Roberto Merhi look set to make their F1 debuts at his expense later this year.
Speaking of debuts, Andre Lotterer enjoyed a very successful first qualifying session with Caterham today. He outqualified full-time driver Marcus Ericsson by just under one second – not bad considering he only got in the car for the first time on Friday!
As for tomorrow? We should be in for a great race. Rosberg versus Hamilton at the front; Red Bull versus Ferrari versus Williams for the podium; McLaren and Force India in there somewhere; Bianchi starting P16 (great job!).
Spa. One little word that gives you every reason to tune in to tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix.
You can watch the race live on NBCSN and Live Extra from 7.30am ET tomorrow.
