Spa Qualifying: Rosberg sees off Red Bull and Ferrari challenge

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg will start the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position, after seeing off a stern challenge from Ferrari and Red Bull during qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.

With teammate and title rival Lewis Hamilton confined to a back row start, Rosberg made the most of the opportunity and his best lap time of 1:46.744 was enough to claim top spot start for the 13th round of the 2016 Formula 1 World Championship.

Rosberg said afterwards, "We had a difficult weekend up to now, especially this morning. We got the job done, having made some changes to the car before qualifying. I'm pleased. I'm happy to be on pole, the tyres are going to be difficult, though. There will be a lot going on."

While Rosberg will start from pole, Hamilton will be last on the grid thanks to a 55 (!!!) grid place penalty and admitted, "It's the weirdest weekend I've had. I've got to use my experience. But there's only so much you can do to make the tyres work for long enough."

"It's not what racers love, it's the rules. I still feel strong and confident that I can challenge for the championship," added the world championship points leader.

Mercedes will be acutely aware that the gap to their rivals has shrunk considerably with Red Bull's Max Verstappen, no doubt inspired by an orange army of fans who descended on Spa for the weekend, claiming second place on the grid with a lap time a mere 0.149 of a second down on Rosberg.

"I think all those people gave me extra motivation," Verstappen said over the team radio on his slow down lap.

He added later, "You can always do a better job but Nico could have done a better lap too. To be so close to Nico on a track with long straights - we can be very pleased with that. I'm very pleased to be second in front of my fans."

With his latest feat, the teenage Dutchman became the youngest driver to start a race on the front row, at the age of 18 years and 331 days.

The previous youngest was Ricardo Rodríguez, who qualified second in a guest drive for Ferrari at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix aged 19 years and 208 days.

Kimi Raikkonen continued his good form at the venue where he scored his last win as a Ferrari driver, back in 2009, ending the session a mere 0.017 of a second adrift of Verstappen.

Raikkonen said, "In the second run it went pretty well. I lost two tenths in the last chicane, the pole was there. Tomorrow is the race and I think we have to be satisfied."

Sebastian Vettel was fourth fastest to make it an all Ferrari second row, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who was fifth fastest in the other Red Bull.

Vettel told reporters, "It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow, but it's been hot all weekend. I think we can win this race. It will be key to look after the tyres, we need to be smart with our strategy and go from there."

Behind Ricciardo, Sergio Perez was sixth for Force India, ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas the battle between the two teams for P4 in the Constructors’ Championship continues.

Jenson Button was ninth for McLaren, ahead of the second Williams of Felipe Massa.

Further back Hamilton will start from the rear of the grid thanks to the multiple penalties incurred, as will Fernando Alonso. The McLaren driver failed to set a time after he ground to halt at Eau Rouge on his Q1 out lap.

The Spaniard suffered an engine change on Friday and will take another one ahead of the race which will incur further penalties.

Manor's teenage driver Esteban Ocon was 18th in his F1 qualifying debut, the young Frenchman was half a second down on teammate Pascal Wehrlein who made it into Q2 and will start from 16th on the grid.

Q1 107% Time: 1:55.279

Qualifying Notes