Belgian GP qualifying LIVE: Hamilton goes for pole in wide-open battle after delayed start | F1 | Sport

Lewis Hamilton will be aiming to secure a positive result in today’s qualifying session to give himself the best possible starting position for this year’s Belgian Grand Prix. The 37-year-old has finished on the podium in each of his last five outings but has been well and truly off the pace at Spa-Francorchamps over the course of the weekend so far and will be desperately hoping for his fortunes to improve against the clock this afternoon.

Hamilton’s hopes of earning a favourable grid position for Sunday’s race may have been boosted by the penalties handed down to the likes of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, who will be bumped down the order after changing their power units in advance of this weekend’s on-track action. The Mercedes driver will need to be firing on all cylinders to stand any chance of taking pole position, though, after questioning his team’s lack of pace following his muted showing in Friday’s practice sessions.

“We’re just not very quick, I don’t know why, I really don’t know,” said Hamilton. “I mean, we are going out and giving everything we have got.

“It could be tyre temperatures, it could be wing levels, it could be a multitude of things. It doesn’t feel disastrous out there, it’s just we are a long way off, but we often find this on the Friday and then thighs change a little bit more on the Saturday so I hope that’s the case.

“Everyone is at risk but at the moment we are not taking any penalties, we have done a great job on that, we have just got to work hard tonight to analyse the data try and figure out where we can go with this car. It doesn’t feel the same as it did at the last track.”

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