A truly brilliant pole lap by Jenson151st pole for McLaren72nd pole for McLaren, Mercedes & Mobil 126th pole for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes8th pole for Jenson
2nd successive pole for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes1st pole for Jenson in a McLarenJENSON BUTTONMP4-27A-02FP3
5th 1m49.091s (+0.549s) 18 laps
QualifyingQ1 2nd 1m49.250s (on Primes)Q2 1st 1m47.654s (on Options)Q3 1st overall 1m47.573s (on Options)Its been so long since my last pole position that it almost feels like a win for me!In fact, its my first pole since Monaco 2009which was a race that I wonand it demonstrates that I can qualify really well.
So I want to offer my congratulations to the whole team: its my 50th grand prix for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes this weekend, so its a great time to get a pole position for everyone at Woking [home of McLaren], at Brixworth [home of MercedesAMGHighPerformancePowertrains] and of course here at Spa.Im surprised that the new rear wing is working so well, but the engineers also did a great job with the balance. And its even more encouraging that we had good consistency through all three qualifying sessions. Nonetheless, nobody has done any long runs yet, so we still need to wait and see how tomorrow pans out.Can I still win the drivers championship? Yes. Well take it one day at a time, but hopefully we can get some good points tomorrow.LEWIS HAMILTONMP4-27A-04FP312th 1m49.615s (+1.073s) 19 laps
QualifyingQ1 8th 1m49.605s (on Primes)Q2 5th 1m48.563s (on Options)Q3 8th overall* 1m48.394s (on Options)
* will start 7th due to Mark Webbers five-place grid penaltyCongratulations to Jenson! He did an excellent job and I hope he gets maximum points tomorrow.For me, today was a bit of a disappointment; but, since Im still in the top 10, tomorrow will be about trying to make the most of things.
The set-up wasnt perfect, but that was simply because we chose the wrong rear wing, preferring to stay with the version we used in Hungary. The wing wed been using in FP3 this morning hadnt been working very well, so we opted to go back to the older wing which we thought would be the safer option. It was a collective choice: we thought the older wing would be quicker in qualifying, but in fact Jenson has shown the new wing to be very good indeed.
Our side of the garage was a bit unlucky, but well do what we can with what we have tomorrow.MARTIN WHITMARSH
Team principal, Vodafone McLaren MercedesThat was a truly brilliant pole lap by Jensonhis first for Vodafone McLaren Mercedesand hes now in extremely good shape for tomorrows race.This morning, though, in FP3, neither Jenson nor Lewis was entirely comfortable with the balance or feel of their cars, a situation that was perhaps compounded by a complete lack of dry running all day yesterday. For this afternoon, then, on a bone-dry track, following the issues wed encountered in FP3 this morning, clearly we had to make some changes. We duly did so, in consultation with our drivers, and, as things panned out, the changes we made to Jensons car paid off the better of the two.So, as I say, having bagged pole position, hell be gunning for victory tomorrowbut Lewis, too, despite starting from P7, will be equally hungry to score a hatful of points. As Ive said before, and as Ill doubtless say again, in Jenson and Lewis we have the best driver line-up in Formula 1, and tomorrow both of them will be aiming to demonstrate that yet again.
. 1. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m47.573s2. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m47.871s + 0.298s3. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m47.893s + 0.320s4. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m48.205s + 0.632s5. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m48.219s + 0.646s6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m48.313s + 0.740s7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m48.392s + 0.819s8. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m48.394s + 0.821s9. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m48.538s + 0.965s1. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m48.890s + 1.317s
Q2 11 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m49.722s + 0.472s12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m49.362s + 0.112s13 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m49.742s + 0.492s14 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m49.588s + 0.338s15 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m49.763s + 0.513s16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m49.572s + 0.322s17 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m49.958s + 0.708s
Q118 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m50.181s + 1.188s19 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m51.739s + 2.746s20 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m51.967s + 2.974s21 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m52.336s + 3.343s22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m53.030s + 4.037s23 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m53.493s + 4.500s24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m54.989s + 5.996s
