His 68th pole position at his 200th grand prix, equalling Michael Schumacher’s record of the most achieved in Formula One. Schumacher took his first F1 win at Spa in 1992 and his family sent their congratulations to Hamilton. Almost flat through Pouhon, his time of 1min 42.553sec smashed the track record of 1.44.503 set by Jarno Trulli in 2009. Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, was in third place, with Raikkonen fourth. Equally, with the majority of remaining races favouring the strengths of Mercedes, Spa will be an indictor of how strong Ferrari’s run-in will prove.

Source: The Guardian August 26, 2017 13:16 UTC