Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton quipped that “the rain is always a friend of mine” as he took pole position during a wet session at Spa-Francorchamps.
Ferrari held the advantage during dry conditions in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, with the team remaining ahead in Q1 and Q2, albeit with Hamilton lurking close behind in third.
But rain fell prior to the start of Q3 and drivers had to abandon their Supersoft tyres in favour of Intermediates.
Hamilton held only fifth place prior to his final lap, following a couple of wide moments on previous efforts, but hauled himself to the front with a lap three seconds faster than anyone else.
Sebastian Vettel improved, but remained seven-tenths behind Hamilton, sealing top spot for the Mercedes driver.
Hamilton’s pole in the drizzly weather comes after he triumphed in a dry/wet/dry German Grand Prix, and was victorious in Hungary off the back of topping a rain-hit qualifying session.
“I think that was one of the hardest sessions that I can remember for a while,” said Hamilton.
“Obviously in the rain in the last race [in Hungary] was obviously incredibly difficult there.
“But this one was going straight from slicks onto Inters, you only had a few laps to find the grip to get the tyres up to understand where the track is dry and where it was wet because it was really patchy throughout the whole lap.
“You come to Eau Rouge and you don’t know if you have to have a litlift, obviously we all have to have a lift.
“Towards the end is was dry enough in some patches and it was still quite wet in other patches. I really can’t find the words to express how difficult it was.
“If you look at the laps, I don’t know it was for other people, but you saw I went off in Turn 1 massively and then again into Turn 12 and so I only had one lap left otherwise I would have been a lot further down in the order.
“I knew I had the pace it was just about trying to find the balance of not pushing too much but not backing off too much and it’s different in every single corner and at no point you can be complacent.
“It’s awesome. I am super happy. The team have done a great job and the rain is always a friend of mine.”
Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start from 19th position due to a penalty sustained for exceeding his allocation of power unit components.
