Sebastian Vettel beat the track record at Spa-Francorchamps in the second part of qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix this year, besting the time set by Porsche's 919 Hybrid Evo, which built outside of the LMP1-Hybrid regulations of the FIA World Endurance Championship where it used to race before Porsche pulled out of the WEC.
Vettel's time of 1min41.501sec around the fabled and super-fast 19-turn, 7.004km circuit translated to an average speed in excess of 248km/h and was almost three tenths of a second faster than the 1min41.770sec time set by the Porsche that ran with more power, downforce and with less weight than when it raced in the WEC.
However, neither Vettel, his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen (who was the first to best the Porsche's time with a 1min41.627sec lap) or eventual pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes AMG F1 were able to go faster on account of the rain that hit the circuit in the third and final segment of qualifying that decided the starting grid for tomorrow's race.
Hamilton ultimately scored his 78th career pole position with a lap of 1min58.179sec. A time which was, despite the rain and the resulting wet track, only four seconds slower than the pole position time set in this year's 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps by the LMP1-specification Toyota TS050 Hybrid.
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