Holy hell Vettel went for that! Great lap that deserved pole, although I am still annoyed Button did not have a chance to fight for it.
Normally I wouldn't consider Button a real contender for pole, but in those conditions he'd have been a real threat, shame he didn't get to show it.
Looks like Seb is back to his starting ways and not messing around Spa win beware! because Seb wants this race to show he isn't going to pull punches in the last 8 races.
<Laugh> So it really is his own trademark celebration, he didn't actually nick it from someone else. Good on you Seb.
They always are. I think Red Bull will have the measure of them today, judging by sector times they have the pace to fend off any overtakes. Hamilton's capable of making things happen but Vettel controls a race so well. I think it will end up being like Turkey and Valencia where Vettel sat in front while Webber squabbled with second with Alonso (Hamilton replacing Alonso today). Safety cars and maybe the weather could make it more interesting though, Spa's never dull.
Interesting speed trap numbers, both red bulls faster than the McLarens even when it was slightly wetter. Pos No Driver Time of Day Speed 1 17 Sergio Perez 15:02:46 300.9 2 1 Sebastian Vettel 15:03:18 299.5 3 2 Mark Webber 15:04:46 298.8 4 5 Fernando Alonso 15:02:52 298.6 5 6 Felipe Massa 15:04:57 296.0 6 8 Nico Rosberg 15:05:37 295.6 7 9 Bruno Senna 15:05:29 293.9 8 19 Jaime Alguersuari 15:05:18 293.5 9 3 Lewis Hamilton 15:05:02 292.7 10 10 Vitaly Petrov 15:01:58 285.5 11 12 Pastor Maldonado 14:14:05 282.7 12 4 Jenson Button 14:13:59 282.5 13 14 Adrian Sutil 14:10:22 281.3 14 18 Sebastien Buemi 14:47:48 280.5 15 15 Paul di Resta 14:17:08 277.1 16 11 Rubens Barrichello 14:46:12 277.1 17 16 Kamui Kobayashi 14:47:10 274.8 18 23 Vitantonio Liuzzi 14:16:44 266.2 19 20 Heikki Kovalainen 14:10:48 260.1 20 24 Timo Glock 14:16:52 257.2 21 22 Daniel Ricciardo 14:16:45 255.9 22 21 Jarno Trulli 14:10:18 252.8 23 25 Jerome d'Ambrosio 14:14:24 250.5 24 7 Michael Schumacher 14:00:34 180.6
Red Bull are using a much smaller rear wing that Mclaren. It is also worth noting that the speed trap is not at the end of the Kemmel straight but at the top of Eau Rouge. EDIT: Here is a webcam of a place very near the track, weather looks sunny at the moment.
I think they'll have the best car, as they did in Hungary and Germany. Once again, they have the advantage of cold temperatures.
Red bull look to have closed that advantage down as they have been working on tyre temperatures during the break.
BBC Sport's Andrew Benson at Spa-Francorchamps: "Sebastian Vettel produced another stunning qualifying lap to take pole position ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and more than a second faster than Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber. But the German has a major problem in the race. His front tyres blistered in qualifying - when the rubber bubbles because it gets too hot, reducing grip - and he has to start on those tyres. That is likely to make him very vulnerable to those behind him." EDIT:it's not just Vettel with this issue, but Webber as well: http://twitter.com/#!/andrewbensonf1/status/107767786717192192
Lewis and Jaime are said to be near enough the same to RBR blistering with doing less laps, Andrew benson is just trying to hype up the crowd up, if anything it's Ferrari that gains the advantage.
Oh. Well that's good It would be ridiculous if the FIA allow teams to start on fresh tyres because they ****ed up their qualifying tyres. I wonder if there is any link between the tyre blistering and Mifune's news about the FIA giving teams 17 tyres.
