Hamilton's Pole Leads Magnificent Mercedes-Benz Showing in Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying

Photo Credit: Mercedes AMG

With almost a month passing between late July's Hungarian Grand Prix and this weekend's event on the famed Spa-Francorchamps course, a summer break must have certainly given drivers as well as whole teams time to consider their progress in the 2015 Formula 1 season. After 10 races down, the Belgian Grand Prix provides the ideal opportunity to advance on success found in the season so far or to establish a better course through the nine remaining events on the tour.

Back in the saddle again, 20 drivers belted into their highly-tuned, hybrid-powered race machines were unleashed for Belgian Grand Prix qualifying on the quick, challenging 7.004-kilometer track. Transitioning from a slower, tight circuit they last competed on in July, pilots of Formula 1 drivers once again familiarized themselves with blazing fast speeds. For drivers seated inside vehicles propelled by Mercedes-Benz, the time trial was an exceptional return to 2015 competition.

As if nothing his changed over the static period of August, the Mercedes AMG added to their undefeated streak in qualifying for 2015. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg decided not to play any games by sweeping 1-2 in all sessions of the Saturday time trials at Spa-Francorchamps. Trading the top spot in Q1 and Q2, the Mercedes AMG teammates fought in a contentious Q3 session. With a 1-minute, 47.197-second lap time, the pole went to Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton`s top time was 0.458 seconds faster than teammate Nico Rosberg`s best run and more than 1.3 seconds quicker than third place in qualifying. The front row start for Mercedes AMG in Belgium is also the team`s 22nd consecutive pole. The current Formula 1 record of pole positions claimed by the vehicles of a single constructor is Williams with 24 scored from 1992 through to 1993.

A season-best effort, Williams Martini Racing driver Valtteri Bottas will be starting in third place. The result for Bottas equals the team's best qualifying spot of the year obtained by Felipe Massa in Australia. Massa starts in sixth place on Sunday. Once again, the efforts of Mercedes-Benz power units proved to be the go-to method for going fast in the 2015 Formula 1 season. The top-five vehicles in Belgian Grand Prix qualifying are powered by gasoline/electric propulsion from the German automaker. Unfortunately, a gearbox charge for the Lotus-Mercedes race car of Romain Grosjean will demote the entry to the ninth-place spot on Sunday's starting grid. Taking the fourth place position Grosjean occupied, Force India and driver Sergio Perez have backed-up on a stunning performance in practice at Spa-Francorchamps. The Mercedes-powered Force India's best finish this season is a sixth-place effort accomplished by Nico Hulkenberg. 

First to break the Mercedes-Benz brigade in qualifying for the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo and his Red Bull-Renault's lap time was narrowly placed between Perez and Massa. With Ricciardo's Red Bull Racing car starting 5th on the grid Sunday, the second team car driven by Daniil Kvyat will start the race in the 12th place spot.

Starting on the fourth row of the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix grid beside the Lotus-Mercedes of Pastor Maldonado is the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. The most recent Formula 1 race winner, Vettel's car will be the only Ferrari-powered vehicle within the top-10 for the main event. Ferrari factory teammate Kimi Raikkonen is starting in 14th spot after not making a lap in Q2. The reason for Raikkonen's inaction after Q1 was an oil pressure issue.

This weekend, the McLaren Honda team has been utilizing revised power unit for the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite the cars driven by Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso being assessed a collective 105-grid position penalty for changes made by the team, the result is only a back of the grid starting spot for both McLaren-Honda vehicles. Thanks to a recently amended rule in Formula 1, there will be no further penalties in future races for this weekend's changes. On-track, it appears the Honda power unit with the McLaren chassis is still struggling to find speed to outrun all-but the Manor Maruassia cars in Belgium.

Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix is scheduled for 44 laps for a 2:00pm local time start (8:00am Eastern time).

 

2015 Formula 1

Belgian Grand Prix

Starting Grid

Pos #	Car #	Driver	Team	Engine
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
2	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG	Mercedes-Benz
3	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams F1	Renault
4	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	Renault
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes-Benz
7	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	Mercedes-Benz
8	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari
9	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	Mercedes-Benz
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jr	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Renault
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes-Benz
12	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull	Renault
13	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari
14	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari
15	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari
16	28	Will Stevens	Manor Marussia	Ferrari
17	98	Roberto Merhi	Manor Marussia	Ferrari
18	33	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Renault
19	22	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda
20	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda