Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has got his ninth pole of the current Formula 1 season, setting the best time at the qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The season’s leader, Vettel needed 1 minute and 48.298 seconds to complete the wet Spa-Francorchamps circuit, which was nearly half a second faster than second placed Lewis Hamilton of McLaren.
Another Red Bull, Mark Webber, completed the top three, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa right behind him.
Vitaly Petrov has made it into Q3 this time, but showed the slowest – tenth – result there. The Russian lost more than a second to his new Lotus Renault partner, Bruno Senna, who qualified on an impressive seventh place.
Another notable event of the qualification was the unexpected 13th place of McLaren driver Jenson Button, who was called in the pits too early in Q2 by his team.
And Michael Schumacher, who celebrates his 200th Grand Prix in Belgium, will start Sunday’s race from last position on the grid after crashing his car in the beginning of the session, which preventing him from setting any time at all.
The Red Bulls have so far snatched all the poles this season, with Webber adding three more to Vettel’s tally.