The reigning world champion, who leads his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by 19 points in this year’s title race, will start no higher than 16th after his team confirmed he has taken on a new turbo and MGU-H, exceeding the five he is allowed before a penalty is enforced.
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Nico Rosberg took pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix after a fight to the top against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen.
Hamilton, who has won six of the past seven races, is now leading his Mercedes teammate Rosberg by 19 points in the points table.
Hamilton took a 15-place grid penalty in Friday’s morning practice session for having changed too many engine parts this season, and was then handed a further 15-place penalty following another component change in the afternoon.
After setting a lap time, Hamilton did not continue in qualifying as there was little point with all his penalties. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who is playing second fiddle to Verstappen, starts the race from fifth spot.
“The car’s ok. yeah, but definitely a weird qualifying sessions for me”, he said.
Because there are only 22 cars in the field for the Belgian Grand Prix and excessive grid penalties don’t carry over into additional time penalties during the race as they used to, Hamilton’s team went ahead and swapped out as much as they needed to in order to bring that engine back up to its dominant status.
“But with the tyres the way they are, which is a bit of a mess, it’s going to be tough out there for everyone”. “To be so close to Mercedes on a track with long straights, we can be very pleased with that”.
“I know how he races so I can adapt to that”, said Rosberg who was controversially penalised at the last race in Germany for a passing move on Verstappen which was deemed illegal by the stewards.
He improved to a 1m46.744s best on his first run in Q3, which was enough to beat Verstappen to pole by 0.249 seconds when neither driver managed to go faster on their final runs.
“I still look online and watch races of the old cars and they sound great”.
No driver in the history of the sport has ever won from last on the grid, while Hamilton – who is chasing his 50th career victory – has failed to win a race from lower than sixth on the grid.
His team-mate Jenson Button qualified ninth, splitting the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.
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With track temperatures already reaching 30 C (86 F) by late morning, Wehrlein lost his cool. Manor team driver Pascal Wehrlein employed some strong language when blaming Haas driver Esteban Gutierrez for forcing him onto the grass. The British-born driver has been handed a 55 place grid penalty, which seems like a joke.
