Belgian GP Qualifying

Red Bull Golden Boy Vettel does it again, grabbing pole on the final lap of Q3, over half a second quicker than 2nd placed Lewis Hamilton (in a damaged McLaren, after being sideswiped in Q2 by Pastor Maldonado).

Webber looked competitive and was just a tenth slower than Lewis in 3rd.

Massa enjoyed a good session, ending up in 4th and significantly out-qualifying his team mate (Alonso could only manage 8th place). Rosberg did a good job for Mercedes after Schumacher crashed out on the 1st lap of Q1, after one of his rear wheels inexplicably fell off. Nico starts 5th, ahead of Jaime Alguesuari - a fantastic result for Toro Rosso.

A good debut for Bruno Senna with Renault, who qualified 7th, ahead of Vitaly Petrov, who starts 10th. Sergio Perez also had a good day and will start 9th for Sauber, ahead of his teammate Kobayashi who had to settle for 12th.

A disappointing day for Jenson Button, who failed to make it to Q3 after looking strong all day. Seems McLaren underestimated the competition and left it too late to send him out again, after he was relegated out of the top 10.

Here's hoping Lewis can get the jump on Vettel at the start and that Button can do another of his comebacks and at least take a place on the podium.

I don't think anyone can tell too much after today's qualifying to be honest was a drying track anyone could of got pole.

I also think maldonado won't be racing tomorrow after his "incident" with hamilton

fernando wrote: I also think maldonado won't be racing tomorrow after his "incident" with hamilton

I agree with the sentiment, but I fear it won't be that simple - firstly Lewis H seems to attract controversial decisions from stewards, and secondly Anthony Davidson (who I thought had more sense) has apparently tweeted that he "isn't sure that only one car changed direction" - maybe he's seen footage that we haven't. Bit of a lottery in quali, given the red flag on session 2 and the rapidly changing conditions; interesting to see how tomorrow's race plays out - I think we can assume that Alonso and Button will be trying very hard to make up for today!

Here's the footage of the incident

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/14694054.stm

from watching it closer id say its dubious as both cars moved towards each other

Why has no one mentioned the sensational performance by Jaime today?

What a great performance by Bruno Senna. He's only driven the car 3 times and gets an excellent 7th position. The way he is destroying Petrov is incredible.

fernando wrote:Here's the footage of the incident

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/14694054.stm

from watching it closer id say its dubious as both cars moved towards each other

Watch the link again. Hamilton moves, then sees Maldonado and gets out of the way, making a move to the LHS of the track or the right based on our perspective watching the video. Maldonado then moves across and takes a swipe at Hamilton. It's clear as day.

Hamilton has had his fair share of incidents but he was blameless in this one. Maldonado's behaviour was disgraceful especially considering that the session had finished.

Both have been charged with "causing a collision"

Hamilton reprimanded and Maldonado with a 5 place penalty

Now that's interesting.

unbelievable hamilton gets sideswiped for no apparent reason and he still gets punished ! its only a reprimand but seeing as he's the victim here i dont see why he's also charged with causing a collision. FIA already on his case and the race hasnt even started yet

the reason hamilton has been done is because the telementary showed he steered towards maldonado aswell but then that might of been because the straight curves to the right.

Gregers wrote:Why has no one mentioned the sensational performance by Jaime today?

You might want to check the 3rd paragraph of my article. I did say "fantastic result for Toro Rosso", after stating Alguersauri qualified 6th.


As to the Hamilton / Maldonado incident, it seemed to me to be to be a clear case of Pastor having a go at Hamilton (possibly revenge for Hamilton taking him off at Monaco). Might change my mind if they show replays tomorrow, but as far as I could tell today Lewis was completely blameless. Maldonado had plenty of track to choose from, so why did he try to squeeze Hamilton towards the edge of the track...especially when quali was over and neither was trying to set a lap time?

fernando wrote:I don't think anyone can tell too much after today's qualifying to be honest was a drying track anyone could of got pole.

I also think maldonado won't be racing tomorrow after his "incident" with hamilton

I thought the quali results were a pretty fair reflection of the cars and drivers (Button and Alonso aside). Vettel was about half a second quicker than anyone else...a feat he's managed on more than one occasion this season. Jenson and Fernando will undoubtedly finish higher than they start, but other than that I think its more or less what we'd expect at most circuits in most conditions.

Think Maldonado got off very lightly with his 5 place penalty. If it were up to me he'd start from the pit lane.

dyrewolfe wrote:

Gregers wrote:Why has no one mentioned the sensational performance by Jaime today?

You might want to check the 3rd paragraph of my article. I did say "fantastic result for Toro Rosso", after stating Alguersauri qualified 6t
As to the Hamilton / Maldonado incident, it seemed to me to be to be a clear case of Pastor having a go at Hamilton (possibly revenge for Hamilton taking him off at Monaco). Might change my mind if they show replays tomorrow, but as far as I could tell today Lewis was completely blameless. Maldonado had plenty of track to choose from, so why did he try to squeeze Hamilton towards the edge of the track...especially when quali was over and neither was trying to set a lap time?

Oops missed that. Well it deserved mentioning again.