The Spaniard is now facing a new engine change in his vehicle which could see him battle Hamilton for the last spot on the grid.
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It was not immediately clear how serious the problem was ahead of qualifying later Saturday.
“Being this hot, it’s going to be hard to follow and being in traffic, it’s very unlikely I’ll get to my stop target or go longer, so it is going to be even harder to get into the top 10 with the tyres the way they are”.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who is playing second fiddle to Verstappen, starts the race from fifth spot.
“Firstly, the team have done an incredible job – the guys and girls back at Brixworth building the engines and then everyone here who’ve been kitting and fitting them – so a huge thank you to them”, said Hamilton.
Kimi Raikkonen secured third on the grid for Ferrari, 0.166s off Rosberg, with Sebastian Vettel a further 0.198s off after complaining of a lack of traction out of the final corner. “I think that’s the best strategy to go into tomorrow – but we’ll see how it pays off”.
Sebastien Vettel was next up in the sister vehicle, with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo bumped down to fifth at the end of Q3 when the Ferraris improved.
“In terms of today, it was definitely a weird qualifying session for me”.
He qualified within the 107% rule which allowed him to end this session in twenty-first, ahead of the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso. There was no point in showing any pace. Jenson Button, fighting for his future in the sport, qualified ninth with what he described as one of the best laps of his career. It was all about race preparation.
“It’s great to break records, but I want to break other records”, he said in the matter-of-fact style that underlines his cool temperament.
“We are not easily the quickest here and with the temperatures it is probably the worst time to take the penalties”. We’re all going to have massive degradation and looking after the tyres will be a struggle for everyone.
“There is the possibility of me crashing in Turn 1 and you avoid that [with a pit lane start], but there is also the possibility that there’s not and then I just give up eight or seven seconds or whatever it is”.
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As Formula One roars back into life following its summer break, Hamilton has largely been a spectator after his Mercedes team made a decision to take a penalty – one which has been lingering over the world champion following a series of engine failures in the opening phase of the season – here in Belgium. It means you have to wait for them to come past the pit lane exit, and by the time I get round the corner they will be halfway down the hill and the last auto will nearly be going into Eau Rouge, and it means I then have to catch up.
