Jenson Button has driven his McLaren to a convincing pole position for tomorrow’s F1 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
The last time Button drove to pole was in the year he won his world championship with Brawn – 2009 – so this one has been a long time coming. But if you have to wait a long time for a pole, it’s good if you can stand head and shoulders above the rest when you do – and that’s exactly what Jenson did at Spa.
Behind Button on the front of the grid are not who you’d expect – Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi is in second and Williams’ Pastor Maldonado in third.
Taking fourth place is a more expected Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus with Sauber’s Sergio Perez in fifth and Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari in sixth. Red Bull’s Mark Webber finished seventh but will start in twelfth after a five place penalty for a gearbox change.
That drop by Webber means a struggling Lewis Hamilton – with a different setup to team mate Jenson Button – moves up from eighth to seventh with Romain Grosjean in the Lotus and Paul di Resta ninth. In tenth is Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull who actually missed out on final qualifying but gets in at tenth because of Mark Webber’s penalty.
But it wasn’t just Vettel who struggled to get in to final qualifying. The Mercedes of Michael Schumacher – in his 300th F1 race – starts tomorrow in 13th place with team mate Nico Rosberg, who didn’t even make Q2, starting 23rd after a five place penalty for a changed gearbox.
Button looks strong for tomorrow’s race with his low downforce setup paying dividends in qualifying, but that could all change if the rain comes.
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