Home » Sports » Motor Racing
Hamilton proves king of qualifying again at Spa
Print Edition
Lewis Hamilton secured his fourth consecutive pole position with a perfectly-timed lap in roller-coaster weather conditions in the final seconds of yesterday’s qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The 28-year-old Briton, in his Mercedes, grabbed his fifth pole of the year and 31st of his career with a late lap that saw him clock a best lap in two minutes and 1.012 seconds at the Spa Francorchamps circuit.
This came just a second after Australian Mark Webber and his Red Bull teammate defending world champion German Sebastian Vettel had gone successively fastest with laps of 2:01.325 and 2:01.200.
Hamilton’s lap delivered a final stunning moment of drama at the end of a qualifying hour as sweeping rain produced rapidly-changing conditions.
Vettel, the series leader, wound up second ahead of Webber with Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate German Nico Rosberg fourth.
It will be Hamilton’s seventh front row start of the season. “I went wide in Turn One and my dashboard told me I was three seconds down and then it was four seconds and then six,” said Hamilton, who is fourth overall 44 points in arrears of Vettel.
“So I didn’t know what was going on, but I kept pushing.
“It’s a blessing I am up here. Generally I feel comfortable in changing conditions,” added the 2008 world champion.
Before that it had looked as if Hamilton’s compatriot, Force India driver Paul di Resta, was heading for the first pole of his career after making an inspired call on the Pirelli tires.
While the nine others queued up at the pit lane exit on slicks at the start of the third phase, the Scot waited and went out on intermediate tires. He soon had the track to himself as the rest pitted to change tires and managed to get in a lap before the rain began to fall.
The weather eased towards the end of the session, allowing others to go faster. Di Resta ended up a still creditable fifth on the grid ahead of compatriot Jenson Button in the McLaren and the Lotus pairing of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
