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.
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.
Mercedes have won three of the past five races and has shown that it can challenge Red Bull for speed.
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.
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.
Heavy rain started falling just before the start, making the already-difficult track even more treacherous. Pastor Maldonado and Adrian Sutil span their cars early on. Alonso was fastest in the first qualifying run ahead of Hamilton, with Dutchman Giedo van der Garde a surprising third.
Finn superstar Raikkonen had topped Q2 ahead of Alonso.