HAMILTON RAINS AGAIN
Lewis defies weather to take pole
SEBASTIAN VETTEL spent sunny hours over the summer break with his fishing rod. And he would not be human if, as he waited for tiddlers to bite, his mind did not occasionally question whether he is truly a match for Lewis Hamilton.
After losing out to him in the rain during qualifying at the last race in Hungary, the answer was rammed home to Vettel again here ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix as Britain’s man for all seasons conjured another pole lap in the wet that was beyond reach.
Hamilton star- jumped along the track afterwards before the top two sat together in the press conference. How can Vettel possibly preserve his self- confidence in the face of such repeated evidence that Hamilton is his better?
Hamilton, who takes a 24-point lead into today’s race in the Ardennes forest, ended up more than seven-tenths of a second ahead of Vettel, who was next quickest.
Rain started to come down with increasing force 15 minutes from the end of the session. Everyone moved on to intermediate tyres. It was patchy out there, and Hamilton at first struggled for the perfect blend of assertive tiptoeing. He ran off twice in his penultimate attempt.
But, with the pressure at its most intense, he made no mistake. It was emphatically his fifth pole here at Spa — a record that took him beyond a holy trinity of Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost — and his 78th in all.
Esteban Ocon was third, his highest qualifying performance and an impressive statement by him and his team, Force India, which has only just been saved from administration.
Hamilton said: ‘That was one of the hardest sessions I remember recently. We went straight from slicks to inters and we only had a couple of laps to understand where it was dry and where it was wet.
‘I really can’t find the words to express how difficult it was. I went off at turn one massively, and then messed up at turn 12, so I only had one lap left or I would have been further down the order.
‘ It is awesome. I am super happy. The team has done a good job and the rain has always been my friend.’
Asked if he was unbeatable in t he wet, Hamilton r epli ed: ‘Definitely not. I tend to do the job in the dry every now and then, too.’
Ocon is a highly-rated young driver. Aged 21 and affiliated to Mercedes, the Frenchman is nevertheless not certain of a seat next year. That is because Force India have been taken over by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, who is thought likely to bring in his own son, Lance, from Williams.
Lance Stroll is no match for Ocon. He is the beneficiary of his father having so far bankrolled his seat at Williams. And it would hardly be edifying to see him included at Ocon’s expense.
Ocon was overheard on TV, in a discussion with Vettel, confiding that, no, he would not be at Force India next year. He would miss out, he confirmed, not only to Stroll but to his current teammate Sergio Perez, who is backed by Mexican money.
In fairness to Perez, he is a very useful driver, as he suggested by qualifying fourth yesterday. Further, Perez is a better racer than a qualifier.
There have been attempts by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff to place Ocon at McLaren, but those discussions have seemingly come to nothing, at least for now while Ocon is Wolff ’s boy.
And why should McLaren do Mercedes’ bidding? Especially when they have their own Lando Norris, whom they can bring in?
The 18-year-old Briton, driving an F1 car on a grand prix weekend for the first time during practice on Friday, was fractions faster than McLaren race driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who is accustomed to the car and should have outperformed the newcomer.
Norris’s display was well enough received in the McLaren garage to suggest he might get the nod to replace Fernando Alonso, who is retiring at the end of the season, for 2019. He would then partner Carlos Sainz, who is coming in from Renault.
Ocon may still find a berth for 2019, as Wolff continues his search to place him.
But as Hamilton said: ‘The best drivers need to be in the best cars. Not people who have the most money. There is something wrong with the structure of the sport if that is the case.’