Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel made it to the front of the grid for the ninth time this season in an event-packed quali session at Spa-Francorchamps.
Bruno Senna was the hero of the session qualifying in seventh place on the grid in his first outing in the Renault this season – and three places ahead of team-mate Vitaly Petrov.
Schumacher had a terrible qualifying session when his Mercedes lost a rear wheel on his out-lap at the start of Q1. The German crashed heavily on the approach to rivage and was the only man not to post a time.
Adrian Sutil crashed his Force India on the way out of Eau Rouge in Q2 leading to a red flag whilst the debris was cleared from the track. Force India’s Belgian Grand Prix misery was compounded when Paul di Resta only managed 18th place, behind the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen who made it through to Q2.
Maldonado and Hamilton came together towards the end of Q2 – the McLaren was attemtping a flying lap when he came across Maldonado at the Bus Stop chicane. Maldonado appeared to jink out, hitting the McLaren, although Hamilton was still able to post a good time and make it through to Q3.
Despite some damage to Hamilton’s car, he was still able to take part in Q3 and he managed to get himself onto the front row of the grid.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m48.298s
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m48.730s + 0.432
3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m49.376s + 1.078
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m50.256s + 1.958
5. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m50.552s + 2.254
6. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m50.773s + 2.475
7. Bruno Senna Renault 1m51.121s + 2.823
8. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m51.251s + 2.953
9. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m51.374s + 3.076
10. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m52.303s + 4.005
Q2 cut-off time: 2m04.625s Gap **
11. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2m04.692s + 1.924
12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 2m04.757s + 1.989
13. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2m05.150s + 2.382
14. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 2m07.349s + 4.581
15. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2m07.777s + 5.009
16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 2m08.106s + 5.338
17. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 2m08.354s + 5.586
Q1 cut-off time: 2m07.194s Gap *
18. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2m07.758s + 5.945
19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 2m07.773s + 5.960
20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 2m09.566s + 7.753
21. Jerome D’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 2m11.601s + 9.788
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 2m11.616s + 9.803
23. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 2m13.077s + 11.264
24. Michael Schumacher Mercedes no time
