Jenson Button Takes Belgian Grand Prix Pole; Kobayashi Second

And we are back. I hope everyone has had a good, month-long break from Formula 1. The summer break is over, and we have nine more grand prixs in the next 13 weeks. 

There was rain yesterday for practice, but it was sunny for qualifying today. That meant that there was really no favorite for the race. 

Fun fact about this race not only is it Michael Schumacher's 300th grand prix, but Spa is where he made is F1 debut and took his first win the following year (thanks @F1StatMan for that). He needs to get to 326 grand prixs to beat the F1 record for races entered set by his former teammate Rubens Barrichello.

During Q1 times fell through the session due to the track getting rubbered in and raising track temps. There were a few minor offs from Fernando Alonso and Narain Karthikeyan, but there was no damage to either car. Nico Rosberg was knocked out in the first round. It appears that he thought he would beat the flag and get another lap, but he didn't. Pastor Maldonado was the fastest driver of the session.

Fernando Alonso was fastest for a good portion of Q2, but with about seven minutes left Lewis Hamilton and then Kimi Raikkonen pushed him down the order. Then Jenson Button went to the top. Michael Schumacher was just into the knockout zone in 11th place with five minutes left.

As the Q2 session closed things got very interesting. Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa and Schumacher were all unable to put in times to get them into Q1. Vettel managed 11th, Schumacher 13th and Massa 14th. Jenson Button was fastest in the session. 

In Q3 Button and Raikkonen were the fastest drivers in the first half of the session, but actually there were the only drivers to set a time in the first half of the session. With two minutes to go the other 8 drivers went out to set their times. Raikkonen was not able to do it, neither was Webber. Button came around and set pole, and his teammate Hamilton could not get close to him. Kamui Kobayashi in the SauberSauberSwitzerland, 1970 > present21 models
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will be second place on the grid tomorrow, and Pastor Maldonado will be third. 

This is Button's first pole since the 2009 Grand Prix of Monaco. It is also the first time that a non-BMWBMWGermany, 1918 > present87 models
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powered Sauber has been on the front row since Jean Alesi at the 1999 French Grand Prix.

*Note: Mark Webber has a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. He qualified in seventh place but will move down to 12th due to the penalty.