The rain man!
LEWIS SHOWS AGAIN HE IS KING IN THE WET
LEWIS HAMILTON produced a wet-weather masterclass to take pole in a crazy qualifying session in Belgium.
The defending champion held his nerve when the rain arrived at Spa, wrecking Kimi Raikkonen’s chances despite the Finn’s new track record.
And the big winners of a madcap day were Force India drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez, who will start third and fourth behind Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel – just three weeks after the team almost went out of business.
But the plaudits went once more to championship leader Hamilton, who survived scares in the rain but then took advantage of the drying track late in the Q3 session to hold off his nearest rival Vettel.
The Brit said: “It was one of the toughest qualifying sessions I can remember.
“Ferrari were very quick on the straights, then the rain came and I can’t stress how difficult it was.
“The track looked dry in some places, but it was actually wet.
“It was so hard, I went off twice, but managed to keep it together.” Hamilton appeared to have blown his chance of pole and was looking at fifth on the grid after he messed up with just minutes left.
Vettel rubbed salt in the wound by going even faster and looked certain to claim top spot.
But Hamilton produced a lap of pure class to snatch pole by almost a second ahead of the German.
Vettel said: “We didn’t time it great and in these conditions we might as well take second, but we had the pace to take pole.
“I had a bit of traffic with Esteban and maybe I was not as calm as I would like to be, but hopefully tomorrow we will have the pace with the car.”
Raikkonen had most cause to feel aggrieved by the weather, having set the track record in Q2 but then found himself stuck in the garage as others took advantage of the fast-drying conditions, with Ocon, Perez and Romain Grosjean passing his time, dropping the Finn to sixth.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo ended in seventh and eighth respectively, two more victims of the weather.