What a delight, that F1 is finally back from the four-week summer break! The legendary old school circuit of Spa Francorchamps was the perfect venue to kick off the second half of the season. Against the odds, the weather was perfect as well. The sun was shining, and there were scorching 29 degrees Celsius, as the qualifying got underway.
The championship leader Hamilton had crashed out at Turn 12 in the last free practice session, which was a rarely-seen mistake from the five-time world champion. The mechanics were still working on the Briton's car, as the light turned green for Q1. However, the first session had a dramatic start. Kubica's Williams was hit with a sudden power unit failure, which saw a dramatic smoke cloud around the car, with also flames coming out of the rear of the Pole's Williams. The session was red-flagged, which gave the Mercedes mechanics some extra time to get Hamilton's car fixed for the qualifying. As the session was resumed, Verstappen reported on the team radio, that he had a problem of the car not responding to the throttle. Ferraris had topped all three practice sessions; their straight line pace was utterly in a class of their own. Leclerc went fastest, edging his teammate Sebastian by half a second. However, Bottas in third was unbelievable 1.5s off the leading Ferrari's pace! On the first sector alone, the red cars were six to seven tenths faster than the Silver Arrows! It felt so incredible to see such a difference in favor of the Italian team, as all pole positions at Spa during the modern turbo hybrid era have been conquered by a Mercedes driver. Red Bull managed to get Verstappen's RB15 back to top form by the end of the session, and the flying Dutchman went third fastest at the end of the first segment. His new teammate Albon, who had been promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso during the summer break, was sixth fastest in Q1. Gasly, who had been demoted back to the sister team Toro Rosso, was the first driver to miss out on Q2. The session was red-flagged again, with less than a minute remaining in the clock, as Alfa Romeo's Giovinazzi was also hit with a power unit failure. Out with Gasly went McLaren's Sainz, the Frenchman's teammate Kvyat and the Williams duo of Russell and Kubica.
The start of the second session was slightly delayed due to Giovinazzi's incident. All top teams came out on the red-walled soft Pirellis. The young Ferrari ace continued, where he had left off in the first session. Once again he set the screens purple and went fastest, pipping his teammate by a tenth only. Unbelievably, the Silver Arrows were toothless against the Ferraris, with Hamilton third and Bottas fourth. Verstappen was fifth, also dearly missing the straight line speed. Kimi had set an extremely impressive lap time, as the Iceman in P6 was only eight thousandths of a second down on Verstappen! Kimi is called "the king of Spa" for a reason indeed! Albon hadn't set a competitive lap time towards the end of the session, but the Thai driver wasn't even targeting to get into Q3. Due to multiple power unit element changes, Albon is going to start to the race from the very back of the grid anyway. At the closing stages of the second segment, both red-suited drivers improved their lap times, with Leclerc maintaining the upper hand on his teammate. However, Sebastian' gap to Charles was a minimal 0.099s. In addition to Albon and Giovinazzi, Haas' Grosjean, McLaren's Norris and Racing Point's Perez were eliminated from the last segment.
Leclerc was absolutely determined to go for pole. He laid down a marker early in the final segment, going fastest in the first runs. Hamilton was second fastest, six tenths down on Charles. Sebastian made a mistake on his first attempt, which left him massive eight tenths off his teammate's pace. Bottas was fourth and Verstappen fifth. Renault showed impressive performance, with Ricciardo 6th after the first runs. Kimi had made his first flyer on a used set of softs, and the Iceman was only 8th. As the two previous sessions had indicated, there was no one to challenge Leclerc for pole. The Monegasque improved his lap time by a tenth on his last flyer. Sebastian managed to improve, too, and the German made it a front row lock-out for the Scuderia. Nevertheless, Sebastian was massive seven tenths off Charles' pace! Sebastian's last flyer had left a little to hope for, as he had locked up his tyres, but it was so great to see the red cars conquer the front row! The Silver Arrows were left on the second row, with Hamilton having the upper hand on teammate Bottas, whose contract with Mercedes had just been renewed for the 2020 season. Verstappen in fifth was 1.1s down on pole-setter Charles, which was a bit surprising. The Renault duo of Ricciardo and Hulkenberg qualified 6th and 7th, but both of them have been handed a 5-place grid penalty for power unit element changes. That makes Kimi jump 6th on the grid!
Charles will start on pole for the third time in his career. Mercedes' long-run pace was slightly better than Ferrari's on Friday's practice, so they might have a real chance to challenge the red cars for the victory. Sebastian has had a long dry season, as he took his last win at Spa last year. The weather forecast says, that the temperature will drop by ten degrees by tomorrow, and there might be some rain on the way... So there might be some surprises as well.
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