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Lewis Hamilton led each qualifying session in Belgium on Saturday on his way to what appeared to be any easy pole position for the F1 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
For Mercedes’ Hamilton, the pole was his fifth in seven outings this season and record 93rd for his career. The pole is his sixth career pole at Spa and third in Belgium in the last four years. Michael Schumacher is second on the all-time pole list in Formula 1 with 68.
Hamilton’s pole time of 1 minute, 41.252 seconds was also track record. For that lap, Hamilton chose to run out front and not rely on any possible tow in qualifying.
“There’s been times where we’ve had to try and get a tow,” Hamilton said. “There’s three difficult sections (at Spa) where you’ve got obviously the straight-line first section which is pretty straight forward, but getting the right wing level here is not so easy. Some are really quick in the first and last sector, but not so good in the middle sector We weren’t the strongest, I’d say, in the first and the last, but the middle was really really strong.”
“I didn’t any make mistakes on all of my laps.”
Mercedes’ Bottas qualified second, a half second back of Hamilton, as Mercedes scored its first front-row sweep at Spa since 2015.
“Turn 1 was a bit inconsistent,” Bottas said. “I’m not too bothered. Second place is not a bad place to start here. I need to attack if I still want to keep the title hopes there. Nothing is over until it is over.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified third, just one hundredth of a second back of Bottas. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo turned in his best qualifying performance of 2020 and will start a season-best fourth in Sunday’s race.
“For us overall, it’s been a very positive weekend overall,” Verstappen said. “We came here and thought it was going to be very tricky for us. To be P3 and be that close to Valtteri—of course we’re a half second off to Lewis—I think overall I can be very pleased with that.”
It was another disappointing qualifying session for Ferrari, as defending race winner Charles Leclerc and teammate Sebastian Vettel qualified 13th and 14th after starting 1-2 last year. It marks the worst starting position for both cars this season.
For Vettel, Sunday’s race will mark his 14th start at Spa. It will be his worst starting position there since starting 16th in his first race at Spa in 2007. Vettel started second at Spa in each of the last three years.
F1 Belgian Grand Prix
Qualifying
