Saturday: Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton achieve a new Mercedes one-two at Spa
Nico Rosberg secured his fourth consecutive pole position while Lewis Hamilton finally managed to have a trouble-free qualifying session. He will therefore start alongside his teammate at Spa.
Nico Rosberg (No. 6) – 3rd and 1st
For the 7th time this season and the 4th consecutive time, it’s the German who triumphed in qualifying, but this pole wasn’t the easiest to obtain: « It’s fantastic to start on pole here at Spa. It’s never easy in these conditions, which make the track even more challenging. But the conditions were very stable today with intermediate conditions throughout the session. So it wasn’t as hard as in previous years. »
If he managed to secure the pole, he was outperformed by his teammate in Q1 and Q2. He therefore adjusted his settings to find the right balance: « My engineers helped me find the right settings with all the opportunities to change something during the session. The car kept improving. I am therefore very happy and quite surprised by the gap with the other teams. »
However, he knows that it is tomorrow when the points are awarded, and he hasn’t forgotten the circumstances that deprived him of victory in Budapest: That being said, I hope I can make a good start and have a clean race because we saw in Budapest that it’s Sunday that counts. I am quite confident because we have a fantastic car.
Lewis Hamilton (No. 44) – 5th and 2nd
After the numerous mishaps since the Silverstone qualifications, the English driver was somewhat apprehensive about this exercise in Belgium: « I was a bit nervous before getting into qualifications, wondering if everything would go well after the problems I’ve had in recent weekends. But it’s great to see that all the hard work from the team has paid off. This circuit is very challenging in the wet. It’s probably fun in the dry when you’re really on the edge, but the conditions were quite stable. So it wasn’t too bad. »
However, the Brit’s session did not go 100% as he would have liked: « It’s a circuit where you need to have confidence in your brakes but, unfortunately, during Q3, I glazed my front left brake, which unbalanced the car. When that happens, it’s very difficult to recover and get the temperature back into the brake. So I lost braking power during my final laps. »
In the end, Hamilton still believes in his chances for victory tomorrow: “I’m not too disappointed. Last year, I was on pole and Seb overtook me on the Kemmel straight. Maybe 2nd place is the best place to be. It might be a blessing in disguise.”
