On the first round of laps in the shootout he was half a second clear of Rosberg, repeating the feat with his final effort. And that was pretty much that at the front. The German, who trails Hamilton by 21 points in the drivers’ championship, cannot even get a look-in on Saturday afternoons.
After trailing in practice on Friday, Hamilton found his best again during qualifying
Elsewhere it was an exceptionally poor day for Ferrari, the victorious team last time out in Hungary. Sebastian Vettel was ninth, way off the pace, while Kimi Raikkonen starts 14th after an oil pressure drop forced him to stop out on track in the second part of qualifying. Stuck in fifth gear, the Finn’s Ferrari resembled spluttering tractor rather than a prancing horse.
Unlike Ferrari, McLaren-Honda were just their usual selves, which is (as they are tired of hearing) fairly abysmal. Despite an upgraded Honda engine, they qualified 17th and 18th.
Jenson Button put in his finest lap for a long time but falls to the back, alongside his team-mate Fernando Alonso after incurring a combined 105-place grid penalty; unsurprisingly, a record. Their season gets more absurd by the race. Whilst at the front – Mercedes were in a different league from Valtteri Bottas in third – Hamilton was cautious ahead of the start.
“We are as prepared as we can possibly be,” the 30-year-old said. “I think we feel relatively good about it.”
The prospect of a mixed-up getaway meant the disappointment did not last long for Rosberg. “Lewis was just too quick in the end, and he found quite a lot extra I didn’t have in my pocket, but there’s a lot more opportunity tomorrow, even at the start,” Rosberg said. “And the run down to turn five [Les Combes]: it’s possible to overtake, we’ve seen that many, many times.”
The Mercedes garage will be desperate to avoid a repeat of their drivers’ antics at Les Combes last year. Having lost the lead off the line, Rosberg challenged on lap two on the long straight out of Eau Rouge, clipping Hamilton’s tyre and causing a puncture. The damage eventually sent Hamilton out of the race, prompting an acrimonious fallout. That debacle prompted a full-scale inquest which Mercedes could do without this time around. All eyes on the start then.