Sebastian Vettel put in a last gasp effort to stop Lewis Hamilton from taking pole position for the Belgian GP.
It was a difficult session for the drivers, in changeable conditions, with many expecting Mark Webber to lead the way. However, the Aussie just didn't have the pace to challenge leaving Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to fight for pole position.
Qualifying 1
With the sun out on a rain drenched track, qualifying got underway at the historic Spa Francorchamps circuit. Michael Schumacher was celebrating his 20 years in F1, yet he had very little to celebrate after just a minute and twelve seconds of the session.
The Mercedes driver lost control of his car between Malmedy and Rivage, slamming the car into the inside barriers and losing a wheel before skeetering across the track and into the run-off gravel at Rivage. "I don't know what happened there. Something unexpected. I'm out," he reported.
The entire field went out early fuelled for multiple laps and the P1 time whittled down from Sebastien Buemi's initial 2:11.806 (which contrasted hilariously with Vettel's very cautious 2:18 lap time).
Hamilton took it down to 2:09.506, Webber took chunks off that with a 2:06.872, Vettel reduced it to 2:06.595, then Webber got it back with a 2:04.481 and then Lewis Hamilton reclaimed it with a 2:04.240.
With seven minutes of the session left both Virgins and HRTs hadn't got past the 107% mark, while the Lotus cars were doing well - Kovalainen in 10th and Trulli in 13th. It wouldn't last.
The two Lotus cars slid down the order until they occupied 18th and 19th places. P1 had been reduced to 2:01.813 by Jenson Button at this time. Race Control announced on the weather radar "It's raining" but some cars were still going quicker.
Paul DiResta found himself in the danger zone of P.17 with just two minutes left of the session to run and looked to improve until a spin in the bus stop chicane ruined his fastest lap. Heikki Kovalainen then ruined his qualifying by going P.16 and putting the Force India driver out in P18.
So out went:
18. DiResta
19.Trulli
20.Glock
DNQ: D'Ambrosio, Liuzzi, Ricciardo
24. Michael Schumacher - no time
Qualifying 2
The weather radar predicted that rain would fade away through Q2 and so it did, with devastating consequences for the McLaren team. Yet again it was Buemi who set the first P1 time at 2:09.421 before Jenson Button got it down to 2:07.232 and Sebastian Vettel reduced it to 2:07.085.
With 8.18 of the session left Adrian Sutil's Force India was pictured limping up the hill after Eau Rouge and replays showed that he'd lost control going up the hill and spun into the barriers - a 260kph accident.
With debris on the track the session was red-flagged with 6.53 left. Once the track had been swept the session restarted, and with no further rain, the track got quicker and quicker.
A McLaren misunderstanding meant Jenson Button was cooling his tyres ready for another quick lap... when he ran out of laps, as times tumbled towards the chequered flag. Lewis Hamilton on a flying lap, good enough for P1, was impeded by the dawdling Pastor Maldonado who ran wide in the Bus Stop chicane and put his McLaren up the inside of the Venezulean. They touched.
As recompense Maldonado simply drove into the McLaren after La Source hairpin once the session was over. A battered Hamilton recovered to the pits, but incredibly the stewards elected only to demote Maldonado five places for his aggression, when exclusion from the GP was their only option.
Out went:
11.Buemi
12.Kobayashi
13.Button
14.Barrichello
15. Sutil
16. Maldonado
17. Kovalainen
Button was the major loser, but Sutil will be equally annoyed not to put more places between himself and team-mate Paul DiResta on a track that should have played to Force India's strengths.
Qualifying 3
Felipe Massa made an inauspicious start to the session by rallying his Ferrari through the gravel while team-mate Alonso set provisional pole. The track was rapidly drying now and slick tyres meant that teams could make use of the DRS rear wing.
Mark Webber looked strong and took P1, before Sergio Perez put in a stunning lap for P1 after which the Aussie snatched provisional pole back with Vettel having to make do with P2 - for the moment. The glued-together McLaren of Lewis Hamilton was running strong and claimed P2 with 1:14 left on the clock.
Vettel then grabbed P1 demoting Lewis to P3. Rosberg jumped from 9th to 5th before the incredible Bruno Senna took 6th on his race debut for Renault. But with the track improving by a second and a half per lap, nothing lasted very long.
Hamilton wasn't finished with pole and crossed the line to grab P1 only to see his Championship rival, Vettel cross the line seconds later with a pole time of 1:48.298.
Felipe Massa had recovered to grab P4 while the early running Alonso paid for his failure to leave it late across the line and got demoted from P5 to P8 by Rosberg, Alguersuari and Senna in the dying seconds of the session.
It was a dramatic qualifying session with fantastic performances from Alguersuari and Senna, and with Renault getting two cars in the top ten. Vettel would not have been expecting pole on what is a power track. However the elements still have a very big role to play in the race on Sunday
FH
Times
0 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m48.298
02. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m48.730 + 0.432
03. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m49.376 + 1.078
04. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m50.256 + 1.958
05. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m50.552 + 2.254
06. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m50.773 + 2.475
07. Bruno Senna Renault 1m51.121 + 2.823
08. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m51.251 + 2.953
09. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m51.374 + 3.076
10. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m52.303 + 4.005
11. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2m04.692 + 1.924
12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2m04.757 + 1.989
13. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2m05.150 + 2.382
14. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 2m07.349 + 4.581
15. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2m07.777 + 5.009
16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 2m08.106 + 5.338
17. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 2m08.354 + 5.586
18. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2m07.758 + 5.945
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 2m07.773 + 5.960
20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2m09.566 + 7.753
21. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 2m11.601 + 9.788
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 2m11.616 + 9.803
23. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 2m13.077 + 11.264
24. Michael Schumacher Mercedes no time
