Lewis Hamilton: “I was so surprised! »

He was the last driver to set a fast lap, and he took the opportunity to claim the best performance. Lewis Hamilton took his fourth pole position in a row, this Saturday afternoon on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Winner of the last Grand Prix in Hungary, the Briton also offered the 8th pole in 11 Grands Prix to his team Mercedes this season. A rather surprising result, the driver having never been very high in the hierarchy during the first three free practice sessions. Worse, he came close to being penalized in Q2, narrowly passing into Q3 with the 10th time, a breath ahead Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), 11th.

But during the final part of qualifying, Hamilton knew how to deal with a track with random grip, very wet on one side, increasingly dry and faster on the other, to be the last to start his stopwatch before the checkered flag be agitated. “I was just so surprised when I crossed the finish line, expresses the poleman. When I started my turn, I looked on the screen and saw that I was seventh or eighth and I said to myself ?Oh my God?, especially as it rained even more. » As is often the case at Spa, it can rain in one sector, and not at the other end of the circuit? Despite these difficult conditions and a too wide passage in the La Source hairpin, Lewis Hamilton will not give up. “I didn't understand what was happening with this trick. But I kept pushing and I saw that I was catching Sebastian (Hag, Editor’s note) towards the end of the round. I really fought.”

With 0??188 better, the 2008 world champion passed Vettel, to once again take first place on the starting grid. A result that he might not have been able to obtain in the dry. “Maybe, or maybe not, he declares on this subject. I'm not really sure we had the pace to be the fastest today. »

>> Click on this link to view photos from the Belgian Grand Prix.