The triple champion, who has won six of the last seven races to open up a 19-point advantage in the overall standings over Rosberg, has the odds stacked against him in his pursuit of a landmark 50th career win.
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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 chose 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.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg qualified in pole position and Aussie Daniel Ricciardo will start in fifth for Red Bull. Especially this morning we were thinking that we were off the pace a bit. “I’m happy to be on pole”.
Nico Rosberg will start ahead of Max Verstappen, left, and Kimi Raikkonen, right, at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Ricciardo said: “If we have a clean race and we don’t get held up by anyone who shouldn’t be in front of us, I don’t think we’ll see Lewis in the mirrors”.
Hamilton added: “What do I think to the actual rule?” “In any case, I’m pleased with my qualifying and looking forward to tomorrow”.
It promises to be an unusual and exciting race.
With nothing to gain, Hamilton did only four laps early in qualifying before rolling into the team garage. He is a two-time victor of this race and already has six wins this year. The key for me is making sure I come out of tomorrow having lost the fewest points possible – and that meant having as many fresh sets of tyres available as possible and making sure the auto was set up well.
The session was certainly far from as dominant as Mercedes has been in 2016.
“It’s a great feeling.” said Verstappen “As soon as I crossed the line in Q3 on my fastest lap, I could see the fans going really wild so I knew it was a good lap”.
“It’s a great feeling”, the 18-year-old said.
He will be joined on the back row by Fernando Alonso, who has a 35-place grid penalty of his own, but did not set a lap time after exiting the pits and coming to a halt at the top of Eau Rouge. It’s been already an fantastic weekend.
“What I’m saying is that there are other places you could overtake if the auto in front is struggling, but that’s unlikely as you get further up the grid. The supersoft is not going to last much more than a handful of laps”.
Verstappen, son of former racer Jos, won on his Red Bull debut in May’s Spanish Grand Prix and has stood on the podium a further three times since.
McLaren’s Jenson Button also hit out at the high tyre pressure limits, saying drivers were having to resort to “crazy” measures just to get their tyres to last.
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Reigning Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton praised his Mercedes team for its effort on a weekend during which he accrued a massive 55-place grid penalty for the use of extra power unit components.
