Belgian Grand Prix: Happy Hamilton breezes to pole

Ferrari left bemused as championship leader's late dash in his McLaren edges out Massa while Raikkonen is off the pace again

By David Tremayne at Spa-Francorchamps
Sunday, 7 September 2008

EPA

Lewis Hamilton (right) beams after clocking the fastest time yesterday to pip Ferrari's Felipe Massa (centre)

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Lewis Hamilton's face said it all after qualifying, and he admitted, as if it was some kind of modern-day Formula One sin, "I'm struggling not to smile."

But well he might. Smile, that is. Yesterday around the imperious sweeps and curves here at Spa-Francorchamps, one of the greatest circuits in the world, nobody could hold a candle to him as he took his fifth pole position of the season.

He was fourth fastest in the first session of qualifying, as S�bastien Bourdais, Heikki Kovalainen and Felipe Massa set the pace, and in the second was beaten by his team-mate Kova-lainen again. But where the Finn ran on Bridgestone's medium-compound tyre, Hamilton was just a hair behind on the harder tyre, which boded well.

When it mattered, in the final session, he upped the ante with a race fuel-load, lapping in 1min 47.973sec, at a time when Massa's best was 1:48.666, Kovalainen's 1:48.081, and Kimi Raikkonen's 1:48.513.

Massa quickly demolished that on their final runs, with1:47.878, but the applause had not even died down chez Ferrari when Hamilton dashed across the line and moved the goalposts yet again: 1: 47.338.

Could either Kovalainen or Raikkonen better that? The former's body language said it all afterwards, as his effort came up short. And once again it seemed that the wrong Raikkonen had been sent to Belgium. Not the really quick one.

He lapped in 1:47.992 and, like Massa, that temporarily put him ahead of a McLaren, but Kova-lainen's 1:47.815 shoved him down to fourth. Interesting...

"Today has been a great day for me, and I am so happy with the laps I did throughout qualifying," Hamilton said. "It is always satisfying to go out and be quick, and today the team made no mistakes and nor did I. I did four great laps, especiallythe two at the end. I had a lock-up into Turn One, but for the rest of the lap I very happy.

"I decided to stay with the harder tyre for Q2 [second qualifying], and surprisingly the softer tyre is slightly better. Everyone else was on the softer- option tyre while I was on the prime, and I was very comfortable with the pace I had. Even with the lock-ups we managed to pull it out of the bag. I feel great, the atmosphere in the team is great here and at the factory, and it's a really solid job they're doing. I'm absolutely thrilled.

"Coming from Valencia [the European Grand Prix a fortnight ago] I knew we had work to do. But I feel better than ever. As you can see, I'm stoked."

Massa and Kovalainen, mani-festly, were not. The former looked resigned, the latter disappointed. "To be honest I did a great lap, but it was not enough," the Brazilian said candidly. "Sometimes you do a great lap and still you are missing something. I need to understand why. They [McLaren] definitelyshowed a better performance than us in qualifying and we need to ask why, because yesterday we had a great car.

"Today it felt OK, the balance is good, but we need to pick up a little more speed to be in front of them. Tomorrow, it will all depend on track and conditions."

Kovalainen said: "All three qualifying sessions were fairly straightforward for me, no problems, but not quite enough to be further up the grid. The lap felt okay, but obviously I lost a little bit in the middle sector, I don't know where. Sometimes that's the way it goes."

The chances of a wet race are high, given the capricious natureof the weather in the Hautes Fagnes region, and that could make the race a lottery.

"It's going to be a very hard circuit in the wet if it does rain," Hamilton said, "especially without traction control and with all the white lines. But we'll just have to do the best we can. At Eau Rouge, if you clip the inside or outside of the kerb, it could be quite unpleasant, or the outside kerb in the first part of Pouhon."

But this was not a day to dwell on such matters, his expression said. This was a day when he was bursting with inward pleasure, wanting to savour the moment.

"Spa is different to Monaco, which is my favourite track," he said afterwards. "A perfect lap there feels incredible, as you breeze past all the barriers, but this is probably the most incredible circuit on the grand prixcalendar.

"When you put a lap togetherhere that is smooth and flowing, and you hit every apex and extract everything from the car and the tyres, it really feels incredible. It is really hard to do, and so easy to push too hard in one corner... I can't explain to you just how good it is."

A win for Raikkonen today may seem unlikely, but would equal Jim Clark's record of four in a row at Spa. But yesterday it was Hamilton whose performance most resembled the legendary's Scot's domination of this majestic track, and praise comes no higher than that.

The grid

1. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1min 47.338sec

2. Felipe Massa (Br) Ferrari 1:47.678

3. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 1:47.815

4. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:47.992

5. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW-Sauber 1:48.315

6. Fernando Alonso (Sp) Renault 1:48.504

7. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:48.736

8. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW-Sauber 1:48.763

9. S�bastien Bourdais (Fr) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:48.951

10. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:50.319

11. Jarno Trulli (It) Toyota 1:46.949