page_title: 2015 Belgian Grand Prix
section_title: Qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Belgian Grand Prix / Report / Qualifying
caption_attribution_description: English: Formula 1 - 2015 Belgian Grand Prix, Spa Francorchamps #19 Felipe Massa &amp; #44 Lewis Hamilton
context_page_description: The 2015 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 23 August 2015 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium. It was the eleventh round of the 2015 Formula One season, and the 71st Belgian Grand Prix.
  Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes entered the event as the overall Drivers' Championship leader, 21 points ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg and 42 points ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Mercedes led the Constructors' Championship by 147 points over Ferrari, while Williams entered the event in third, a further 85 points adrift. Having won the 2014 edition, Daniel Ricciardo was the defending race winner.
  Lewis Hamilton won the race for Mercedes, extending his championship lead over Rosberg, who finished second, to 28 points. Romain Grosjean and Lotus secured a podium finish for the first time since the 2013 United States Grand Prix, benefitting from a controversial tyre failure on Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari late in the race.
  The race was celebrated by Scuderia Ferrari as their 900th Grand Prix participation. McLaren was handed a record 105-place grid penalty for a multitude of changes to their Honda power units.
context_section_description: Qualifying consisted of three parts, 18, 15 and 12 minutes in length respectively, with five drivers eliminated from competing after each of the first two sessions. Valtteri Bottas was first and last out on track during the first part of qualifying (Q1), starting the lap that saved him from elimination in the very last moments of the session. Excluded from further participation were both Manor Marussia cars, both McLaren drivers and Sauber's Felipe Nasr. Max Verstappen succeeded in progressing into Q2 despite complaining about a loss of power on his car.
  The second part of qualifying saw Kimi Räikkönen come to a halt on track due to a loss of oil pressure. The session was briefly red-flagged to clear the track and when it resumed, both Mercedes drivers decided not to head out again, since their first times where sufficient to advance to Q3. Max Verstappen did not compete in Q2 at all due to the problems on his car, leaving him in provisional 14th (bar his penalty) and Räikkönen in 15th on the grid. The other three drivers to be eliminated were Marcus Ericsson for Sauber, Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hülkenberg. Hülkenberg's time was just three-tenths of a second slower than that of Sebastian Vettel in tenth and he became the only driver of a Mercedes-powered car not to compete for pole position.
  Lewis Hamilton was the first Mercedes driver to set a timed lap in Q3, being almost half a second faster than Rosberg in Q2. While Rosberg succeeded in bettering his times as well, he nevertheless ended up 0.458 seconds behind his teammate and second on the grid. This handed Lewis Hamilton his tenth pole position in eleven races, meaning that he secured the FIA Pole Position Trophy at this early stage of the season. The next fastest car, Valtteri Bottas for Williams was 1.3 seconds off Hamilton's time of 1:47.197. Fourth fastest was Grosjean, who delivered what the BBC called a "stunningly impressive" lap. Sergio Pérez put in a surprising effort as well, finishing fifth for Force India. Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel, who had won the previous race in Hungary, managed only ninth fastest after a mistake at the final chicane.
  After qualifying, Hamilton stated his performance was mainly due to improvements he made in the middle sector of the lap, saying: "Sector two has been probably in the past a bit of a weak point. I knew the lines but could never really put the corners together. Definitely on those last two laps that was a very, very strong area for me." Indeed, he gained most of his time on Rosberg in this sector, containing the majority of the circuit's corners. He became the first driver since Michael Schumacher – who achieved the feat in 2000–2001 – to secure six consecutive pole positions, while the last driver to score six consecutive poles in one season was Mika Häkkinen in 1999. Following their poor qualifying performance and grid penalties, Jenson Button expected a "lonely race" for McLaren, saying: "I actually enjoyed driving the car, and when you cross the finishing line and you see the time you think 'That's not bad'. But then when you see where you are, a second off the guy in front of you, it's a massive margin, it hurts."
caption: Lewis Hamilton celebrates taking pole position.
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