Hamilton equals Schumacher at Spa with 68th pole

Lewis Hamilton moved level with Michael Schumacher as the two men with the most Formula 1 pole positions of all time by securing his 68th pole at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Setting a new lap record at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton delivered a stunning lap to post a 1m42.553s and match the seven-time world champion at the same circuit Schumacher secured his first grand prix victory. Despite the focus on Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel also produced an excellent final attempt having been struggling for the majority of the weekend and took second on the grid, 0.242s adrift of his main title rival.

Valtteri Bottas was over half a second adrift of Hamilton in third place as Ferrari stayed close at a circuit expected to suit Mercedes, while Kimi Raikkonen had to settle for fourth having reported vibrations throughout the qualifying session. Raikkonen had looked like Hamilton's biggest threat throughout the weekend but aborted his final lap and dropped from second to fourth.

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Max Verstappen ended up just 0.1s adrift of Raikkonen in fifth with a good lap for Red Bull, beating Daniel Ricciardo by half a second with an impressive performance in front of a large traveling Dutch contingent. Nico Hulkenberg was seventh ahead of the two Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, while Jolyon Palmer suffered more misfortune and qualified 10th – but may face a penalty.

Palmer had been the quicker of the Renault drivers throughout Saturday and looked set to be best of the rest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull until a loss of gearbox oil pressure stopped him on his out lap in Q3. The Briton pulled off track in a cloud of smoke, and if he needs to change his gearbox will face a five-place grid drop.

The end of Q2 saw an all-too-familiar story at McLaren as Fernando Alonso aborted his final attempt and sent in an exasperated radio message of: "No power!" The Spaniard had been set to make the top 10, eventually finishing just 0.084s adrift of Ocon's Force India.

Alonso had benefitted from a tow from Stoffel Vandoorne in both Q1 and Q2, with the latter session seeing Vandoorne not complete a timed lap as he has a 65-place grid penalty after two power unit changes. The two McLarens were joined by both Haas drivers in being eliminated in the second part of qualifying, with Romain Grosjean getting the better of the internal battle with Kevin Magnussen, as the Dane ended up just 0.039s ahead of Carlos Sainz.

A disappointing weekend for Williams continued as both drivers dropped out in Q1. On a track that should have suited the car more than recent venues, Felipe Massa's crash on Friday was followed by another error in final practice. The Brazilian received a five-place grid penalty for ignoring double waved yellow flags in FP3, and then dropped out in 16th place in qualifying.

Lance Stroll was also eliminated after failing to emerge for a second qualifying attempt. Williams noticed damage to the left-rear wing endplate on Stroll's car after his first sun and was unable to replace it in time for him to run again.

Daniil Kvyat dropped out in 17th place after stopping on track with a power unit problem in FP3 – an issue that necessitated a gearbox change leading to a 20-place grid penalty for the Russian – while the two Sauber drivers were well adrift with Marcus Ericsson 19th and Pascal Wehrlein 20th.