Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who will start Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps from last after serving a 55-place grid penalty following further changes to his engine this morning, spent the majority of the one-hour session focusing on his race pace.
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Hamilton’s Mercedes team had been weighing up whether to take the grid drop here at Spa-Francorchamps or at next Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, with both circuits expected to offer him the best chance of fighting back through the field.
The world champion’s W07 auto was fitted with its third brand-new power unit of the weekend when Practice Three began, triggering another 25-place penalty and condemning Hamilton to a bottom-row start alongside former McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso. “We were seriously off the pace on one lap so it really wasn’t so easy coming into qualifying but we got the job done in the end”.
Kimi Raikkonen will start from third and Sebastian Vettel fourth.
Hamilton has a 19-point lead over Rosberg, his Mercedes rival, in the title race.
A new power unit was fitted for second practice, incurring a 35-place grid penalty for Alonso’s auto, while an investigation on the original power unit found that the leak was caused by the power unit’s MGU-H.
“We made a lot of changes before qualifying and it all came together, so I’m very happy”.
The engine penalty has been looming over Hamilton after he encountered several failures in the opening rounds of the season. “We’re not the quickest here and because of the temperature it’s probably one of the worst times to have this penalty”.
“I just drove on the super soft tyres and it lasted three laps”, Hamilton said. A repeat win is a long shot – even for Hamilton – but since Spa is the longest track in F1 at 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) and is very fast, it should help him pick up valuable points.
“As far as I’m aware I’m going into qualifying to try and qualify, to try and go fastest, but if they decide different, whatever is the best option for the race is the most important for us.
We have had a very good Friday and a very good start from the weekend”.
However, neither the Red Bull man nor Raikkonen could topple the Mercedes man, who will start Sunday’s race in first thanks to a 1:46.744.
“I’m just very pleased to be second here in front of my fans – it’s great to see them at the side of the track”, said Verstappen, who was born in Belgium to a Flemish mother and Dutch father.
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Sergio Perez was sixth ahead of his Force India teammate Nico Hulkenberg, Finn Valtteri Bottas of Williams, Jenson Button of McLaren-Honda and Felipe Massa in the second Williams.
