Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium: Lewis Hamilton roared to a record-equalling 68th career pole position on Saturday, matching Michael Schumacher’s record in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The 32-year-old three-time world champion will start Sunday’s race, the 200th of his career, from his sixth pole this year with championship leader German Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari alongside him in second.
Hamilton’s lap in 1min 42.553sec was the all-time record fastest at the spectacular Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the forests of the Belgian Ardennes, 0.242 seconds quicker than Vettel.
The 68th pole position for the Mercedes driver drew him level in the record books with seven-time champion Schumacher whose congratulations were conveyed to him immediately afterwards by former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn.
Vettel secured his front-row spot with a late and dramatic lap for Ferrari.
He leads Hamilton by 14 points with nine races remaining this year.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Finn Valtteri Bottas qualified third ahead of compatriot Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari, Dutchman Max Vestappen and his Red Bull teammate Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
German Nico Hulkenberg was seventh for Renault ahead of Mexican Sergio Perez and his Force India teammate Frenchman Esteban Ocon and Briton Jolyon Palmer, who was 10th for Renault after an engine failure.
Felipe Massa’s wretched weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix continued on Saturday when he was handed a five-place grid penalty for a yellow-flag offence in final practice.
The Brazilian Williams driver was also given three penalty points on his licence for failing to slow for double-waved flags.
His weekend began miserably on Friday when he crashed on his first lap in opening practice and damaged his car, ruling him out of any further action for the day.
Massa was back in action only after recovering from a bout of vertigo at last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix where he dropped out of qualifying and the race after complaining he felt dizzy and sick.
Massa’s penalty will not be as harmful to his prospect as those expected to be confirmed for the Sauber drivers, German Pascal Wehrlein and Swede Marcus Ericsson, who have both had unscheduled gearbox changes.
Home hope Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne is also due to be given a massive 65-place grid penalty after overnight changes of engine and gearbox following an earlier pre-race introduction of an unscheduled power unit.
