Nico Rosberg beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to pole position by 0.149s on a weekend where he is looking to capitalise on teammate Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix.
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Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen of Finland steers his vehicle through a corner during the second practice session at the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix circuit in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, Friday, Aug. 26, 2016.
Daniel Ricciardo was second for Red Bull with Raikkonen’s Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel third in the order.
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.
The Briton heads into the weekend gunning to become only the third driver to take 50 career wins.
With title rival Nico Rosberg starting from pole position, Hamilton faces a battle through the field to try to minimise the damage to his 19-point championship lead on Sunday. From there on the mechanics did a great job and in qualifying the vehicle was working really well, as you could see in sector two.
Rosberg, meanwhile, will be joined on the front row by 18-year-old Dutchman Max Verstappen, F1’s rising star. “The chance is always there if you are that close and in sector two we were very strong, but we were missing some top speed”.
Rosberg, who finished only seventh in final practice on Saturday morning, said: “We had a hard weekend up to now and especially this morning as we were seriously off the pace on one lap”.
No driver in F1 history has ever won from the final spot on the grid.
“It’s all (in) the last corner”, an unhappy Vettel said after qualifying.
While Spa is a circuit where overtaking is easier than at most tracks, Ricciardo believes the top five cars will be out of reach for Hamilton in a straightforward race. “Lost it all again, the traction, the grip”.
The defending champion was plagued with engine problems at the start of the season and has to accept the penalty for replacing key components.
Fernando Alonso, already set to drop 35 places on the grid because of his own team’s engine penalty, ran into more reliability trouble, his McLaren grinding to a halt before the Spaniard had managed to set a time.
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Stewards handed Gutierrez, who drives for the US -backed Haas team, a five-place grid penalty after reviewing the incident.
