Hamilton makes it six poles in a row

First driver to record the feat since Schumacher’s seven in 2000-01

August 23, 2015 12:20 am | Updated March 29, 2016 04:50 pm IST - Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium):

Series leader Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth consecutive pole position on Saturday when he dominated qualifying for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

The 30-year-old Briton clocked a stunning and flawless final lap in the closing seconds of the top 10 shootout in a time of one minute and 47.197 seconds to outpace Mercedes teammate German Nico Rosberg by nearly half a second.

It was the 48th pole of his career, his 10th this year in 11 sessions and his third at the majestic Spa-Francorchamps where he has suffered ill-fortune in the past.

He is the first driver to record six successive poles since seven-time champion Michael Schumacher with Ferrari in 2000-01, when he reeled off seven in succession.

Rosberg recovered from the shocking high speed tyre failure that sent him into a full spin during Friday’ second free practice session, fought hard to end Hamilton’ supremacy, but without avail.

Italian tyre supplier Pirelli had completed an overnight investigation into the cause of his accident and concluded that there was nothing wrong with the integrity of its tyres. It said the failure was caused by a puncture created by unidentified external debris.

Bottas third Finn Valtteri Bottas was a surprise third fastest for Williams, ahead of Frenchman Romain Grosjean of Lotus, who faces a grid penalty yet to be confirmed after a change of power unit parts, and Mexican Sergio Perez of Force India.

The session began in warm, dry and unexpectedly balmy conditions at the sprawling and majestic track in the Ardennes with Hamilton quickly stamping his authority on proceedings.

He emerged fastest from Q1 ahead of Rosberg while the early departures included the two struggling McLarens of 2009 world champion Briton Jenson Button and two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton continued to set the pace as Q2 began, soon to be overhauled by Rosberg with a lap in 1:47.955 shortly before the session was red-flagged when Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari came to a halt with possible engine problems.

Kvyat in trouble again Kvyat collected his second reprimand of the season, and Red Bull was fined €10,000 after an unsafe release from the pit garage during practice on Friday.

A third reprimand in a season would trigger an automatic 10-place grid penalty for the driver.

Race stewards found that Kvyat’s car was released as Massa was approaching during the second practice session, and the Russian “did not pay sufficient attention.”

Kvyat was previously reprimanded in Austria for a pit-lane infringement.

The starting grid:

Front row: Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg; Second row: Valtteri Bottas & Sergio Perez; Third row: Daniel Ricciardo & Felipe Massa; Fourth row: Pastor Maldonado & Sebastian Vettel; Fifth row: Romain Grosjean & Carlos Sainz Jr; Sixth row: Nico Hulkenberg & Daniil Kvyat; Seventh row: Marcus Ericsson & Kimi Raikkonen; Eighth row: Felipe Nasr & Will Stevens; Ninth row: Roberto Merhi & Max Verstappen; 10th row: Jenson Button & Fernando Alonso.

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