Francorchamps, 1 September

Jenson Button took pole position for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying his McLaren in 1.47.573. Surprisingly, in second place, we have the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi (1.47.871) with Pastor Maldonaldo third for Williams in 1.47.893. Despite giving it his best shot, Fernando Alonso had to settle for sixth place on the third row, behind Raikkonen’s Lotus and Perez’s Sauber, who were fourth and fifth respectively. On a positive note, in terms of the championship, the Spanish Ferrari driver is ahead of his closest rivals, as they had an even harder time: Webber (Red Bull) qualified seventh, but will drop five places on the grid as a penalty for a gearbox change, with Hamilton eighth for McLaren. As for Vettel, he failed to get his Red Bull into Q3 and was 11th on the timesheet. Felipe Massa struggled with balance problems in the other Ferrari and did not get into Q3 and will start from 14th spot with a time of 1.49.147.