Lewis Hamilton tip-toed his way to a memorable record fifth pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday as he and Mercedes handled the capricious weather conditions at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit with tactical aplomb.
The championship leader produced a decisive lap in the last drying seconds of a rain-hit session in 1min 58.179sec to outpace nearest rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, who is 24 points behind him in the title race, by 0.726sec.
"That was excruciating, an awesome lap, you really nailed it in that last sector," Hamilton's race engineer Pete Bonnington told him on team radio. "That was one of the toughest I can remember," said Hamilton who had claimed the 78th pole of his career thanks to well-timed laps in the improving conditions at the end of the session. "The track looked dry in some places, but it was actually wet. It was so hard... I went off twice, but I am so glad I managed to keep it together.