Hamilton is due to start from the back row of the grid at the Belgian Grand Prix after incurring a 55-place grid penalty over the course of the weekend for multiple engine changes.
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Hamilton, who has won six of the past seven races, is now leading his Mercedes teammate Rosberg by 19 points in the points table.
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”.
“We really made quite a few changes on the auto going into qualifying and we found the right way”.
“We are all struggling to look after our tyres so it is not going to be a cool easy breezy day where I’m just picking them off one by one”.
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium Max Verstappen will have an unhindered view of the first corner at the start of Sunday’s Belgian Formula One Grand Prix, but the Dutchman will have his sights set far beyond that after securing the maiden front-row start of his fledgling career.
The German set the fastest time of the morning while running the device on his Mercedes but Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg only completed sole installation laps.
Fernando Alonso, who will also serve a hefty engine penalty – the size of which will be determined on Sunday morning – will join Hamilton on the final row.
I hope that we see our exciting youngster Verstappen add to this list on Sunday.
“My aim has always been to be able to win races in F1, and if this is not possible for me I will go and do something else”.
“If you push on the out lap (from the pits), they are done by turn three, blistering and overheating”.
“I’m just very pleased to be second here in front of my fans, it’s just a great motivation when you see them next to the track”.
Formula One grid consists only of 22 drivers, which means Hamilton will start from the last place.
“I just drove on the super soft tyres and it lasted three laps”, Hamilton said.
Jenson Button was eighth for McLaren, while British rookie Jolyon Palmer’s bid to show his Renault bosses he deserves a second season was blighted by mechanical issues in both practice sessions. It was definitely a weird qualifying session for me.
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“We’re not easily the quickest here”, he said. The unusually high temperatures combined with Pirelli’s high tyre pressure prescriptions – a precautionary measure following two blowouts at Spa previous year – have resulted in the tyres overheating and blistering, which in turn reduces their performance life considerably.
