Saturday: Slick tires replace rain tires

After a day marked by heavy rain on Friday, the final free practice sessions of the weekend and the qualifying took place in dry conditions today, with ambient temperatures around 15°C.

Jenson Button clinched the pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix – his first for McLaren – with a time of 1:47.573, faster than any other time set this weekend. Last year, Sebastian Vettel secured the pole with Red Bull with a time of 1:48.298.

The teams only having run with Rain tires yesterday, today represented the first and only opportunity to use the hard P Zero Silver and medium P Zero White compounds, designated for Belgium. The third free practice session was thus very busy, as the teams prepared for qualifying and the race in just one hour with the different tires. It was Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) who claimed the best time at 1:48.542, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen in the Lotus.

With constantly changing weather in the Ardennes, the teams preferred to get out on track quickly at the start of qualifying in order to establish a benchmark time. Most teams started Q1 with the hard tires, except for Caterham, HRT, and Marussia, who used the softest version available. Pastor Maldonado was the fastest driver with the medium compound.

Once again, it was the medium compound that topped the timesheet in Q2, this time with Jenson Button’s McLaren comfortably leading the way. Only Romain Grosjean used hard tires in Q2 for a first run.

Faster by 6 to 9 tenths per lap than the hard compound at Spa, the medium was also used for the final part of qualifying. The grid order was decided once again in the last seconds, with Button securing his first pole position since 2009. Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi achieved his best qualifying result with second place, also on the medium compound.

Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport Director: « After what can be described as a real shower yesterday, the teams faced the heavy task of qualifying today, with their first really productive rounds after a five-week break. Changing conditions are a constant at Spa, but our tires have proven they can adapt to a wide range of conditions, even on this circuit that imposes the highest energy loads of the year. The forecast for tomorrow is for particularly dry weather, similar to today. This offers the opportunity for a large number of strategies, which could be crucial on the longest circuit of the season. We expect two or three stops. We would like to congratulate Jenson Button on his first pole with McLaren as well as Kamui Kobayashi and Sauber for their best qualifying performance.

In 2011, Vettel adopted a three-stop strategy, pitting on laps 5, 13, and 30. The tire allocations were different, with the Soft and Medium compounds being made available. Nonetheless, this year’s tires are generally softer than their equivalents from last year.

All the drivers who qualified in Q3 used Medium tires to set their best times and will therefore have to start the race with them.