As he waited to give the post-qualifying TV interview, Ross Brawn, Formula 1's managing director of motorsport and a close ally of Michael Schumacher during the era of Ferrari's dominance, came up to pole winner Lewis Hamilton to deliver a special message. "Records are meant to be beaten," said Brawn as he conveyed the best wishes of Schumacher's wife Corrina, who has been taking care of the former seven-time F1 champion since his life-altering skiing accident in 2013.
The message was on account ot Hamilton securing the 68th pole position of his F1 career in his 200th race, tying the German legend's record for the most number of poles. The Briton set a sensational time of 1min42.553sec around the 19-turn, 7.004 km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which amounted to an average speed of 245.784 km/h (152.737 mph) around the legendary circuit where Schumacher made his F1 debut, scored his first ever win and secured his seventh and final world championship title.
Hamilton's time was 4.191 seconds faster than last year's pole position time set by then Mercedes AMG F1 teammate Nico Rosberg. All but three of the 20 drivers on the grid set a time faster than Rosberg's time of 1:46.744.
Crucially for those hoping for a close fight for Sunday's race, one of those drivers managed to get within 0.242 seconds to Hamilton's stunning time; Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
Mercedes was expected to hold an advantage over the rest of the field at the extremely fast and technical circuit in the Ardennes forest, much like was the case at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. However, Raikkonen showed good pace in the final of three practice sessions and although he was unable to challenge for pole, Vettel felt confident that Ferrari had the pace to challenge for the win.
Vettel did benefit from a slight tow from Raikkonen on the final flat out blast headed to the bus-stop chicane but still was able to get close enough to suggest that the race could be a close fight. Especially as Mercedes always runs a very aggressive power unit setting in qualifying to gain track position on its rivals.
Crucially for Ferrari, Vettel and Raikkonen ran just 13 and 11 laps throughout qualifying, respectively, as opposed to the 18 and 19 laps that Hamilton and Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas ran in their effort to blitz the field. That could give them an advantage in terms of fresher tyres available for the race.
Bottas, Raikkonen, Red Bull-Renault's Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo occupied the top six positions on the starting grid, confirming Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing's position as the three premier teams in F1 at the moment.
Renault F1's Nico Hulkenberg outqualified the Force India-Mercedes' of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon while Renault's Jolyon Palmer completed the top ten. The fast improving factory Renault team and Force India are locked in battle to be F1's best of the rest this season.
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