Lewis Hamilton takes POLE at the Belgian Grand Prix as rain hits Q3

Lewis Hamilton takes pole position for the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel as rain turns Q3 upside down.

Ferrari looked to be the quickest cars at Spa this weekend in the dry conditions, but a splash of rain in Q3 turned their apparent advantage on its head and served up pole position for Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.

As the final Q3 shootout began, rain started to fall across Spa and, as it got heavier, cars were having to pit for intermediates without even setting a time.

As the rain slowed a little, Raikkonen set a good time to take the lead in the shootout and provisional pole, but Vettel came back and pipped him to take the lead.

Hamilton seemed to be struggling – even going off track at one point – but when it mattered, on his final run, he pulled something special out of the bag as the track started to dry and managed to secure a convincing pole.

It could be argued the pole is as much a result of lucky timing as of Hamilton’s skill, and that timing extended to the newly revived Force Indias, which managed to take third and fourth as their timing was spot on too.

Romain Grosjean managed fifth place ahead of Raikkonen’s Ferrari, but the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Ricciardo suffered bad timing to qualify in seventh and eighth, with the Haas of Magnussen in ninth and Bottas only managed 10th.

McLaren had as miserable a qualifying as any this year, with Alonso and Vandoorne out in Q1 and starting 17th and dead last respectively. Alonso has already ruled himself out of F1 for 2019. Expect Vandoorne to be given no choice.