Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position for the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix after the rain came down during Q3 which made the conditions tricky for the drivers. It was an interesting qualifying session which was dry for the most part, however, during Q3 the rain started to fall which made things chaotic. Earlier on in qualifying, Carlos Sainz was eliminated during the first part in what was arguably a shock.
Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, who will be starting from the back of the grid anyway, had a minor spin as the drivers were still on the slick tyres whilst the rain started to come down and was lucky not to make any contact with the walls. Sergio Perez, who elected to try a flying lap on the slicks, was lucky not to crash after he lost control of the car at the Eau Rouge/Raidillon section.
At first the rain was falling relatively consistently, though after a while stopped and the track began to dry out - and Hamilton had a slightly risky moment when he went off track, but nailed his qualifying lap when it really mattered, posting a 1:58.179, a full 7-tenths of a second faster than Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari. In an impressive performance by the team, Racing Point Force India, who effectively were the Force India team who were recently bought by a consortium headed by Lance Stroll's father but are starting out in effect as a 'new team', its drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez managed to qualify 3rd and 4th respectively thanks in part to the damp conditions, with the former achieving his best ever qualifying result. The Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen did not go out in the last part of Q3 as they would not have had enough fuel to do a timed lap, and the same problem seemingly happened to Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari.
Starting grid: Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
Esteban Ocon - Racing Point Force India-Mercedes
Sergio Perez - Racing Point Force India-Mercedes
Romain Grosjean - Haas-Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
Max Verstappen - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer
Kevin Magnussen - Haas-Ferrari
Pierre Gasly - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Brendon Hartley - Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda
Charles Leclerc - Sauber-Ferrari
Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
Carlos Sainz - Renault
Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Renault
Sergey Sirotkin - Williams-Mercedes
Lance Stroll - Williams-Mercedes
Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren-Renault
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault