Follow Qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix LIVE

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Follow live coverage of qualifying for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, with comprehensive as-it-happens coverage from F1i.

After almost a full month off over the summer, this will be the first big test of how the teams currently stand heading into the second part of this year's Formula One world championship. We know that Mercedes and Honda have both made some big changes to their engines, but will it make any impact on their respective performances at Spa?

It perhaps wasn't too much of a surprise to see Nico Rosberg lead the pace on Friday morning (and while trialling the Halo cockpit protection system at the same time), but since then it's been a strangely subdued time for him, as he dropped back to sixth place in FP2 and then to seventh in this morning's one-hour FP3 session.

It probably simply seems that Mercedes don't want to show its hand just yet, and the weather is also giving them and the rest of the teams something of a headache. It's very hot and sunny in Spa at the moment, entirely different from the cool and overcast conditions we expect in the Ardennes, and that means no one is confident how the tyres are going to last in tomorrow's race.

As a result, Rosberg seems to be staying off the supersoft compound so far which has allowed the Red Bulls, Ferrari, Williams and Force India to gain the advantage. Local hero Max Verstappen topped the timesheets in FP2 on Friday (but suffered an ECU issue this morning) while Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in FP3. It could all prove to be extremely close in qualifying!

One person we know won't be on pole after this afternoon's session is Lewis Hamilton. He's racking up the engine penalty points, opting to make multiple changes this weekend in order to replenish his stockpile of components for the rest of the season since he's doomed to start from the back of the grid. He'll be joined at the back by Mclaren's Fernando Alonso who had to make an engine change of his own after missing FP1 with a fluid leak.

It all makes for a very tense and intriguing picture heading into qualifying, which which gets underway at 14:00 local time (1pm BST). As always, F1i will bring you all the news and information from trackside the minute that it happens on F1i's live page.

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Chris Medland's 2016 Belgian Grand Prix preview

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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.