Belgian GP / Qualifying: Fifth pole of the season for Hamilton, whilst both Ferraris got knocked out of Q3!

The Belgian GP weekend starts the third triple-header of the season. Naturally Mercedes arrived at famous Spa Francorchamps as the favourites in terms of both qualifying and the race. Ferrari's situation had even worsened coming to chilly Belgium. The last free practice session had seen Charles in P17 and Sebastian at the very back of the pack in P20! The starting point to the qualifying couldn't have been any more difficult. 

Mercedes continued living their fairy-tale. Hamilton went fastest, with teammate Bottas only two tenths off the pace. Ricciardo at the wheel of his Renault brought a refreshing change, as the Australian jumped third on his first run. However, Mercedes proved untouchable, as Ricciardo was nine tenths off Hamilton's benchmark already. Sainz in his McLaren was fourth, followed by the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Albon. Things seemed miserable for the Red Team after their first flyers; Charles made it only 14th and Sebastian 18th. Only the Haas duo of Grosjean and Magnussen was slower than the struggling German. Verstappen made a second run on his first set of soft Pirellis, jumping third. However, not even the flying Dutchman was able to make it closer than 0.8s from the pace-setting Briton. At the very end of the session the traffic at the last corner was horrendous, as both Ferraris, both AlphaTauris and both Williams were trying to find an optimal position for their decisive last attempt. Luckily both Charles and Sebastian were able to extract a little more out of their challengers, and they both made it among the fifteen fastest. Charles made it just barely though, as his margin to safety was 0.087s only! The first driver to be knocked out of Q2 was unfortunately Kimi, the King of Spa. Alongside with the Iceman, eliminated were his teammate Giovinazzi, Williams' Latifi and the Haas duo of Grosjean and Magnussen. The comet of the first session was definitely AlphaTauri's Gasly, who jumped fourth at the closing stages of the first session.

Expectedly, the Mercedes duo came out on the medium Pirellis in Q2. So did Red Bull's Verstappen and a bit surprisingly both Racing Points as well. In spite of the harder rubber, once again Hamilton made it on top. This time Bottas got close, as he was only a tenth down on his teammate. Max got a little bit closer, too, as he was 0.4s down on Hamilton. Renault continued their awesome performance, as Ricciardo was fourth and Ocon fifth. Racing Point's tyre choice didn't prove successful, as the pink-suited drivers were only in P10 (Stroll) and P11 (Perez) after their first runs. It was obvious, that they had to opt for the soft compound at the end of the session. Ferrari's struggle continued, as Sebastian was in poor P13, followed by his teammate. Spa Francorchamps, which required high straight line speed, proved the worst-suiting track for the Red Team so far. There was no chance for Sebastian and Charles to make it among the top ten. Having opted for the soft compound, Stroll jumped fifth and Perez 7th. Sainz made an excellent job by moving fourth at the end of the session. AlphaTauri's Kvyat was the first driver to miss out on Q3, and by such a minimal margin as 0.008s! His teammate Gasly was out, too. The Ferrari duo of Charles (P13) and Sebastian (P14) was separated by three tenths in favor of the Monegasque. Williams' Russell was left in P15. 

Q3 threw no surprises. Like predicted, Hamilton laid his hands on provisional pole. This time he pulled a significant gap to his teammate, as Bottas was half a second down already. Ricciardo was magnificent third after his first run, but Verstappen in fourth was a hundredth of a second off the Australian only. Teammate Albon had found promising pace as well, and the Thai driver was in P5. Although Hamilton had set a flawless lap at the beginning of the final segment, the Briton saw a chance for improvement. On his final flyer, he cut two tenths off from his benchmark, making it his fifth pole of the season and 93rd of his career. Bottas was truly left half a second down on his teammate. Actually Verstappen got extremely close to a front row grid slot, as the Dutch Red Bull ace was only 0.015s down on the Finn. Ricciardo made it on the second row alongside Verstappen. The third row was locked down by Albon and Ocon. The top ten was rounded out by McLaren's Sainz, the Racing Point duo of Perez and Stroll and Norris in his sister McLaren. 

I definitely hope there will be some rain tomorrow! Otherwise it will be another boring race, with Hamilton disappearing into the horizon. Ricciardo is the first driver on the grid on the soft compound, as the top three will start to the race on the medium rubber. Will the Ferraris be able to make it in the points even? My heart bleeds to see Sebastian struggle like this. This might be the worst season for Ferrari in those 25 years, that I've been following the sport!