For this 12th qualifying session of the season, the sun decided to make an appearance over the Ardennes, but the temperature was far from summery as a mere 14\u00b0C was shown on the FIA’s official thermometer.<\/p>\n
During Q1, it was Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen who was the fastest, with an impressive time of 1:42.585, nearly matching the pole position time set last year by Lewis Hamilton. This allowed him to push his teammate back by five-tenths and Lewis Hamilton by nearly a second. The British driver then decided to make a second stint, which allowed him to climb back to second position. Ferrari and Mercedes were the only teams to use the soft tires while all the other teams opted directly for the super softs. At the very end of the session, Valtteri Bottas, who will start from the back of the grid due to his engine change, posted the second-fastest time of the session on super softs.<\/p>\n
Behind, the two Williams were able to improve on their last attempt but could not do better than 18th and 19th, finishing only ahead of the local favorite, Stoffel Vandoorne. The big surprise of this Q1 is the early elimination of Carlos Sainz, who could not do better than 16th due to a lack of rear grip.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Sauber confirms its good form, placing its two drivers, Charles Leclerc (8th) and Marcus Ericsson (10th), in the top 10 while both Force India cars were able to qualify comfortably with just one attempt.<\/p>\n
The drivers eliminated from Q1 are: Sainz, Alonso, Sirotkin, Stroll, Vandoorne.<\/b><\/p>\n
From the start of Q2, Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen continued his momentum, breaking the track record with a time of 1:41.627, surpassing the record set by the non-homologated Porsche 919 Evo earlier in the year! But Sebastian Vettel manages to do even better, by a mere 32 thousandths.<\/p>\n
\n#Seb5<\/a> sets a new record 1:41.501 P1 #Kimi7<\/a> 1:41.533 P2 #BelgianGP<\/a> #Quali<\/a> #Q2<\/a><\/p>\n