Force India struggle in wet Belgian GP qualifying

Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), Aug 24: Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg had a difficult outing in the Belgian Grand Prix qualifying Saturday and will start Sunday’s race 13th and 18th.

Hulkenberg failed to get through to Q2 for Force India, complaining that he'd lost all brake temperature and confidence as he was stranded on 2m 11.267s. 

Perez did manage to get through to the next qualifying but failed to get into Q3 and will start 13th.

Nico Rosberg made the fewer mistakes in a wet qualifying session to take pole position by just under three-tenths of a second from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. 

The Briton ran slightly wide at La Source on his first run in Q3 and was thereafter on the back foot. It was Rosberg’s seventh pole of the year, his fourth on the trot, and his first at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Silver Arrows were way ahead of their opposition, led this time by the Red Bull of a rejuvenated Sebastian Vettel who made up for his problems with a great lap of 2m 07.717s which withstood Fernando Alonso’s assault as the Ferrari driver recorded 2m 07.786s.

Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull took fifth on 2m 07.911s, although all three of them had off-track moments during their efforts.

Williams, who fancied their chances at Spa, will be disappointed that Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa could only manage sixth and ninth respectively. 

Between them were McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen on 2m 08.679s and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen on 2m 08.780s, while Jenson Button was 10th in his McLaren on 2m 09.776s.