Button takes first McLaren pole at Spa

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Jenson Button has taken pole position for the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps. It marks his first pole position since he joined McLaren two years ago. Kamui Kobayashi will start aside of him from second place while Pastor Maldonado qualified in third position.

The weather is still nice at Spa at the beginning of qualifying, similar to FP3 and also similar to what are expected to be the conditions during tomorrow's race.

Charles Pic is the first man to go out on track as he waited at the end of the pitlane until the light went green. He posts a 1:53.493, quite a long way off the pace of what is expected to be the cut-off time. Nico Rosberg followed to take the track, putting in some recognition laps as he was not able to put in a lot of laps in FP3 as he lost drive on only his third lap into that session.

9 minutes into the session, Pérez is on top of the timesheet, ahead of Hulkenberg, Di Resta, Kobayashi and Grosjean.

5 minutes later Button, Alonso and Hamilton have secured their places into Q2. Raikkonen and both Red Bulls at that moment are on track, hoping to denefit from a less busy period on the track. Raikkonen drove a nice lap to 4th, but Vettel and Webber were less impressive and posted 7th and 8th times, although it seems like it's going to be enough to move through to Q2.

2 minutes from the end, Maldonado then goes fastest with a 1:48.993. He did use the softer tyre for that lap, just like Massa and Ricciardo did late in the session.

Rosberg meanwhile is eliminated as he posts 18th and crosses the finish line tiny second too late to post another flying lap. Alongo with him are Kovalainen in 19th, Petrov, Glock, De La Rosa, Pic and Karthikeyan.

Rosberg's elimination was a fortunate event for Grosjean who was under danger of getting eliminated. The Frenchman also heated up under the helmet as on his final flyer he got stuck behind an HRT, who on his behalf was also completing his final flying lap.

The beginning of Q2 is relatively quiet with only Pérez setting a laptime in the first 5 minutes. He posts a 1:48.880 on the medium tyre.

Another 5 minutes later, McLaren unfolds its true pace as Button laps the Belgian circuit in 1:47.654, almost a full second faster than Raikkonen who is now in second place on the timesheet. Lewis Hamilton is third, Alonso 4th, Webber 5th and Grosjean 6th.

In the danger zone are VEttel in 10th, Schumacher 11th, Di Resta 12th, Massa 13th, then both Toro Rossos and the two Williams cars. Senna, in 17th hasn't even set a lap yet, as he only nearly managed to keep his car on track at the full throttle Blanchimont corner on his attempt, forcing him to pit for a new set of tyres.

1 miute from the end, only Buton and Raikkonen are left in the box as everybody else is out to start another flying lap. Pérez for instance moved up to second place, but apart from him, nobody impressed on that final lap.

It means that as Maldonado improved earlier on, Vettel is out and 11th. He is eliminated along with Hulkenberg, Schumcher, Massa, Vergne, Ricciardo and Senna.

At the start of Q3, Paul Di Resta is the first man on track, but Raikkonen is so eager to start his flying lap first that he slipstreams through Eau Rouge and passes the Sahara Force India into the braking zone of Les Combes.

The Finn is of course the first to post a lap but is topped by Button on his first attempt. The provisional pole is now set at 1:47.686. All others that were out early on got back into the pits at the end of their flying lap, before setting a time. Hamilton for sure had no choice as he went very wide through Bruxelles. Fortunately for him, the gravel trap on the outside of that corner has been replaced last year by tarmac.

40 seconds from the end, Raikkonen is the first of the top drivers to start his final flying lap. At that time only 2 times have been set, hence all 8 others are betting on a single attempt.

At the finish line, Raikkonen was unable to improve and is provisionally 4th. Alonso is 6th and Webber 7th. At the very front, Button improved another tenth to secure pole and will start from the front row alongside Kamui Kobayashi, another brilliant performance for Sauber as Pérez is 5th. Maldonado is 3rd.

(*) Will be moved back 5 places on the starting grid due to a gearbox penalty