It is Rosberg’s 28th career pole and his sixth of the season, he has converted three of those to race wins and with Hamilton starting in 22nd place, has the best possible chance to make it a fourth and narrow the 19-point gap by which he trails his team-mate in the world championship.
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“What an idiot? You see that?”
With Hamilton seemingly out of contention for victory, his Mercedes team-mate and championship rival Nico Rosberg had been expected to seal a relatively straightforward pole position later on Saturday.
“The whole weekend has been very smooth … and in qualifying the auto was working really well”, said Verstappen, who had ended Friday’s opening day of practice top of the timesheets.
“It’s supposed to be cooler tomorrow”, said Vettel.
At the age of 18 years and 331 days, Verstappen passed the record of previous youngest front-row starter Ricardo Rodriguez at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, when he was 19 years and 208 days.
The two Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel will start ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the other Red Bull, although Raikkonen believes that he had the pace to take pole away from Rosberg if he had managed to hook up a clean lap. He sat out most of the qualifying laps.
Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland steers his auto through a corner during the second practice session at the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix circuit in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, Friday, Aug. 26, 2016. “Lost it all again, the traction, the grip”.
The world champion’s W07 vehicle 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.
Vettel, a four-time F1 champion, has not won a race since the Singapore GP last September, and this might explain his somewhat brittle mood.
McLaren-Honda’s Fernando Alonso, the recipient of his own 35-place grid penalty, was unable to complete a single lap.
Given their situation, it made no sense for either Hamilton or Alonso to qualify for the second part of qualifying.
The session was run in continuing sweltering conditions with an air temperature of 36 degrees Celsius and the track at 44 degrees – utterly unexpected by tyre suppliers Pirelli and numerous teams who made aggressive tyre selections in advance, expecting much cooler weather. The Manor driver employed some strong language when blaming Gutierrez for forcing him onto the grass.
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Renault’s Jolyon Palmer was pleased with his 14th place – he’ll move up the grid with all those penalties as well.
