F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Vettel on front row at Spa, with help from Raikkonen

Ferrari team mates Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen worked together in Saturday's qualifying session to ensure that at least one of them made it onto the front row for tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix.

Earlier in the day Raikkonen had set a new track record in final practice. However the Finn suffered with vibration issues from the start of qualifying that left Vettel to challenge Lewis Hamilton's dominance.

Even so, Vettel's needed a little help from Raikkonen in order to edge ahead of Hamilton's team mate for second place on the grid.

"I had a very good feeling in Q1," said Vettel. "Then I lost that feel a little bit. Had a bit light front end, especially then through all of sector 2 with the medium, high speed corners.

"I was lacking a bit of response," He continued. "But the last lap the car was more alive. Immediately I could feel it turning into turn 1.

"Then I have to admit I was a bit lucky with Kimi, who had to abort his lap and he gave me a very, very nice tow which made it a bit more comfortable with Valtteri.

Record-setting Hamilton dominates Spa qualifying

"Obviously it's very important," he said when asked how much difference it made to his race prospects starting on the front row alongside Hamilton. "A good position today. Great job from the team. Very happy. Looking forward to the race.

"So far it's been looking pretty good," he continued. "I hope we can keep it up.

"The car on one lap I thought all weekend has been trickier to keep it together. Consecutive laps on high fuel I felt really good, so let's see what we can do tomorrow.

"For sure Mercedes will be quick, but we don't have to hide - we're on the front row for a reason. We have the speed. And we should have it as well in the race."

After a strong build-up to qualifying - topping practice on both Friday and Saturday morning - Kimi Raikkonen was understandably less pleased with how qualifying had gone at Spa. The b

"Something that has been going very smoothly all weekend, and then having a messy qualifying, is pretty disappointing," he sighed.

Asked how the vibration issue had affected his run, he added: "Hard to say, but it didn't help."

On the plus side the Ferrari is clearly fast this weekend, and Raikkonen is eyeing the chance to make things good on Sunday.

"I don't know the lap times, but those have been pretty okay all weekend," he said. "It's close. Close fight. Obviously having a bad qualifying is not a very happy feeling right now but we'll try tomorrow again."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.