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It was Lewis Hamilton’s fifth pole in seven races this year, a feat he said he wanted to accomplish in memory of Boseman, whose life had been an inspiration to him.
British Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton reacts after securing his 93rd pole position during qualifying session at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Spa on August 29, 2020 ahead of the Belgian Formula One Grand Prix. Image: AFP.
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS – Lewis Hamilton delivered two consecutive record-breaking qualifying laps to claim his sixth pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix and a career record of 93 with an impeccable display of speed on Saturday.
The championship leader and six-time champion posted a best lap in one minute, 41.252 seconds in the final seconds of a session that he dominated in a personal tribute to Hollywood film actor Chadwick Boseman, who died on Friday.
His Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was second, completing another front row of ‘black arrows’ on the grid, but he was more than half a second behind Hamilton’s pace.
It was Hamilton’s fifth pole in seven races this year, a feat he said he wanted to accomplish in memory of Boseman, whose life had been an inspiration to Hamilton.
“Today was a very, very clean session for me and the end of the lap got better and better. We did a lot of work for this in the background.
“This is a really important role for me because I woke up to the saddest news of Chadwick’s death… It has been such a heavy year for all of us, so it shook me.
“He wanted to get out there and drive perfectly because of what he has done for our people and how he has shown young children what is possible.”
Max Verstappen, who follows Hamilton by 37 points in the race for the drivers’ title, was third for Red Bull ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, who aborted his final lap, and Alex Albon in the second Red Bull.
Esteban Ocon finished sixth in the second Renault ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, the two Racing Points of Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll, and Lando Norris in the second McLaren.
After winning last year’s race, Charles Leclerc and his four-time champion Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel were eliminated during Q2 and will start Sunday’s race from positions 13 and 14.
After heavy rain overnight, the session started in cool and whimsical conditions with occasional rain and sunshine on different parts of the circuit at the same time.
Much attention was focused on Ferrari after their troubles in practice, but both drivers passed into Q2, Leclerc by the narrowest margin.
The 2019 Belgian winner, who had started from pole, survived the cut in 15th place, just eight hundredths of a second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo.
The Finn was joined for an early start by two Ferrari-powered Haas cars driven by Romain Grosjean, 17th, and Kevin Magnussen in 20th along with his Alfa teammate Antonio Giovinazzi, 18th, one place ahead of the Canadian rookie. Nicholas Latifi of Williams.
Hamilton led Q1 ahead of Bottas with Verstappen third and was immediately back on pace in Q2 with a lap of 1: 42.014, more than half a second faster than Leclerc’s pole time last year.
Russell and the two Alpha Tauris of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly joined Ferrari as they couldn’t get out of Q2.
Licensed to use its ‘party’ motor mode one last time before it is banned next week, Mercedes took the lead in Q3 with Hamilton setting 1: 41.451 for a new track record and provisional pole, 0.576 seconds down. on top of Bottas.
A fast lap by Ricciardo gave him third place for Renault, just 0.032 behind the Finn and ahead of the two Red Bulls in the first few races, as most teams slid in pairs, reversing positions for their second races.
Hamilton came out alone, however, and he proved it with his impressive second fastest lap in 1: 41.252, and another track lap record, to which Bottas responded by taking second place, but more than half a second adrift as he defended. of the Verstappen challenge. .
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