Hamilton dedicates Spa pole to Chadwick Boseman

Lewis Hamilton made qualifying look effortless at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday afternoon, as he set a new track record time in qualifying for the Belgium grand Prix.

It's the sixth time that Hamilton has secured the top spot for the race, and his his 93rd Formula 1 pole position in 256 races.

But this time was made especially emotional for Hamilton, as it came in the wake of the shock overnight news about the sudden death of Hollywood star Chadwick Boseman.

The star of Black Panther, Get On Up, 21 Bridges and Da 5 Bloods succumbed to colon cancer at the age of 43.

• Hamilton puts in perfect pole lap as Ferrari flops in Q2

"Today is a really important pole for me," Hamilton said after the end of the qualifying session.

"I woke up to the saddest news of Chadwick passing away," he continued. "It's been such a heavy year I think for all of us and that news just really, really broke me.

"It was really not easy to get back in focus coming in today with that hanging on my heart, but I wanted to get out there and drive to perfection

"What he's done for our people, what he's done for the superhero shows all the young kids that it's possible. He was such a shining light. Wakanda forever."

Hamilton topped every round of qualifying, and his final lap of 1:41.252s in Q3 was half a second quicker than his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

"Today was a very, very clean session, every lap getting better and better, we did a lot of great work in the background," he said.

"Getting the right wing level here is not so easy," he explained. "We're not the strongest in the first and last section but the middle was really strong.

"Turn 1 has been a weakness for me in the last few years, but I just got stronger and stronger through there.

"I didn't make any mistakes on all my laps, but my Q3 run 1 lap was ace and i was thinking there was no way I was going to beat that," he added. "But I saw I was up [on the second run] so I just kept eking away throughout the lap so that was a very very, very good lap - I was happy with that."

Many drivers and teams were working on getting a 'tow' between their drivers down the long straights, but Hamilton didn't join in that sort of fun and games.

"I studied that and of course there have been times when we've tried to get a tow," he said. "I chose to go first. I just wanted to be out in the clean air, not having to worry about the people ahead of me, getting the gap into the last corner.

"You can still get a tow from someone at seven seconds behind and I didn't want anything coming in my way so it worked out perfect for me."

By contrast it was a subdued afternoon for Bottas, who never quite seemed to find the extra tenths he needed to put him anywhere near to really competing with Hamilton this afternoon.

"Turn 1 was a bit inconsistent," he admitted. "The second run felt pretty good overall so I don't know why it's such a big gap to Lewis.

"But I'm not too bothered because I know second place is quite a good place to start here. It should be an interesting run into turn 5.

"I need to attack if I still want to keep the title hopes there," he admitted. "Nothing is obviously over until it's over so I'm going to go for it.

"I think the first lap is a great opportunity and racing here is always good. I know already there will be opportunities to do it."

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