lewis Hamilton left it to the last second to beat Sebastian Vettel’s time and secure his fourth straight pole position of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday.
In a frantic finish under heavy rain at Spa, the lead changed hands in a flurry of activity as first Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber and then Vettel all beat each other’s times, only for Hamilton to go fastest for the fifth time this season and the 31st time in the 2008 champion’s career.
“I am so surprised. When I started the lap, I looked at the screen and I was seventh or eighth and it was raining more and more,” Hamilton said.
“I just kept pushing.”
Hamilton let out a long scream of delight on crossing the line. The British driver won the previous GP in Hungary last month and needs another win in Spa to keep the pressure on championship leader Vettel of Red Bull. He is fourth overall and trails Vettel by 48 points with nine races left.
“I feel quite comfortable in changing conditions and I feel I am able to find my limits in those conditions,” Hamilton said. “I just hope we can do that in the race tomorrow. I feel I have been driving well for some time now.”
Mercedes has won three of the past five races and has shown that it can challenge Red Bull for speed.
“lewis had quite an impressive middle sector, he was right behind me,” Vettel said.
“I could have gone a little bit quicker here and there.”
Webber qualified third ahead of Rosberg and Paul di Resta, who looked set for an upset until the drivers came back out on new tires and eclipsed his time. Force India driver Di Resta will start fifth.
“Difficult for all of us to make the right call,” Webber said. “In the end we got most things pretty good, I would say,” he added.
last year’s winner Jenson Button starts from sixth for Mclaren, ahead of lotus pair Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.
But it was a bad afternoon for Fernando Alonso, who was ninth for Ferrari - which has struggled in qualifying all season.