Hamilton puts feet up as Rosberg takes pole

SPA FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — When Nico Rosberg took pole position for the Belgium Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was watching on television with his feet up.

Normally, the Mercedes teammates and championship rivals would be giving everything they have on track to be the fastest. Not this time. Because Hamilton was already certain to start the race from the back of the grid as a result of incurring grid penalties linked to too many engine part changes this season. In total, he got a massive 55-place demotion, sending him to last place in the 22-car race.

It rendered his qualifying session pointless, and after only four laps he went back to the garage.

"It's been a vacation weekend, just been chilling," Hamilton joked, adding that he watched the end of qualifying "in my room, in my shorts."

He'll be back to the serious business on Sunday.

Hamilton, the defending champion and series leader, must limit the damage and protect his 19point lead over Rosberg as much as possible. This, on a long and difficult sevenkilometer (four-mile) track where the unexpectedly high heat is causing havoc with tires pumped up to rockhard pressure.

"Hoping to get into the top 10," said Hamilton, all but ruling out a 50th career win. "It's definitely going to be tough to get through the field and on the podium."

This season, he started last in China and finished seventh. He is less optimistic now.

"It's completely different to China. It was cooler and the tires went a lot longer, behaved more like normal tires," Hamilton said. "Here, there's not much you can do to stop the tires blistering and overheating."