LEWIS HAMILTON and Nico Rosberg locked out the front row for Mercedes in the Belgian Grand Prix as they continue their battle for the world championship. It was Hamilton’s sixth consecutive pole position and his 10th of the season, but his 21-point lead over his teammate could be overturned with just one non-finish combined with a Rosberg victory.
The Mercedes remain the fastest cars, with Valtteri Bottas qualifying his Williams a distant third ahead of Romain Grosjean for Lotus, though the latter suffered a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change, promoting the Force India of Sergio Perez. The Williams, Lotus and Force India are all powered by Mercedes engines, highlighting the advantage it enjoys over Ferrari, Renault and Honda. Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault-powered Red Bull was sixth, ahead of Felipe Massa’s Williams, Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus and Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari.
There are nerves among the drivers after the unexplained tyre failure suffered by Rosberg during practice on Friday. Pirelli have concluded that it arose not from any structural failure within the tyre but from a cut — possibly from debris on the track or a kerb. Rosberg’s right-rear tyre exploded as he was travelling at 190mph, but fortunately at a place where the car spun harmlessly to a halt. There are many points around this circuit where that would not have been the case. Forthright opinions were expressed by the drivers behind closed doors in a meeting with the race director afterwards, but in the absence of any evidence of an inherent fault or failure with the tyre, the race will go ahead as normal. There is a further suggestion the cut could have come from a piece of the car’s bodywork as the tyre deflected over a kerb taken at high speed.
“We don’t really understand it,” said Rosberg. “There are theories but no evidence and that’s worrying. We’ve done some measures to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
It’s something Rosberg would rather not have on his mind as he tries to turn the tables on Hamilton, who qualified half-a-second quicker. Unusually among the drivers, Hamilton does not count Spa as one of his favourite tracks and was delighted with the way he had conquered its challenge. “In the past, sector two here has been a bit of a weak point of mine,” he related. “I know the lines but have never been able to put the corners together somehow. This time, on my two Q3 laps it was great.”
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Getting both cars into Q3 in the middle of a troubled weekend was a great outcome for Lotus, whose garage was visited on Thursday by bailiffs.
This came as former test driver Charles Pic took legal action against the team but just scratches the surface of a more complex set of circumstances regarding the future partnerships and contracts of several teams. Renault are expected to buy Lotus in preparation for becoming once more a full F1 constructor rather than an engine supplier. It is believed to be conducting due diligence on the team, which it used to own before selling it to the current owners in 2009.
The complication is that Renault have a contract to supply Red Bull until the end of 2016. But this is a step closer to being resolved with the news that Red Bull are terminating that contract because of sub-par performance. This implies that Red Bull have succeeded in securing Mercedes engines. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone told Mercedes it “should think very carefully before saying no” to Renault. Ferrari have offered to supply Red Bull, but the Mercedes engine, currently the standard setter, is the preferred option.
The Ferrari supply could be used for Red Bull’s junior team, Toro Rosso – currently also Renault-powered. Renault could continue to brand the team as Lotus before rebranding as the official Renault team in 2017 when the Red Bull contract expires.
Fraught partnerships between teams and suppliers have been a theme this year. McLaren have been disappointed by the upgraded engine supplied here by Honda. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso qualified 17th and 18th respectively — their straightline speed failing to justify Honda’s pre-weekend claims of having “Ferrari-matching” horsepower. “Obviously disappointing,” admitted Button, “because that lap felt as good as my pole position lap here in 2012.” The contribution of Honda’s electrical energy systems to the total power output is believed to fall short of that of the other engines — and this is something that is punished at the 4.35-mile Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
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McLaren hoped Honda’s evaluation of its engine upgrade was accurate, and an improvement in performance would see a positive upturn to the second half of a difficult first year for the partnership.