Belgian Grand Prix Preview – Rosberg Secures Pole Position

Live on Sky Sports F1 at 13:00 on Sunday, the 12^th race of the 2014 Formula One calendar takes place as teams do battle at Belgium’s famous Spa-Francorchamps track.

Rosberg Takes Pole Position in Belgian GP

With rain falling throughout all three Belgian GP qualification sessions, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg took pole position via his first flying lap of Q3, although the German did later improve on that slightly. It was his fourth pole in a row.

Teammate Lewis Hamilton had a poor first flying lap in Q3 and, despite later improving his time, finished over two tenths of a second behind his championship rival.

Surprisingly, Red Bull’s four-time world champion, and 2013 Belgian GP winner, Sebastian Vettel, finished above the Williams tandem of Bottas (6^th) and Massa (9^th), with two-time 2013 race winner Ricciardo also impressing by snatching fifth place on the grid.

Expect changeable weather and a safety car

At one stage in its history, the Belgian F1 GP experienced rain for 20 years in a row! Therefore, with both sun and rain forecast at the track this weekend, the 2014 cars having less down-force than in the past and the reality that you’ll often see some parts of the track dry and others wet under such circumstances, expect crashes and, of course, the resulting safety car.

Fast Spa-Francorchamps Track suits the Mercedes Powered Cars

The Mercedes works cars are the quickest on the grid by some distance, with their customer cars – most notably Williams –second in terms of outright pace and straight line speed.

Although Williams’ Bottas and Massa didn’t qualify as well as expected, at a minimum, the Mercedes works cars were still around two seconds per lap quicker than the rest of the field in qualification.

Belgian Formula 1 GP Betting

Hamilton opened up as the 4/5 favourite prior before the grid order was decided, with Rosberg available at 2/1 with several firms. Post qualification, the Briton is EVEN money with Ladbrokes, while Betfred offers pole-sitter Rosberg at 5/4.

All in all, we’d like to back Hamilton at evens but feel he should be priced between 6/5 and 5/4 under the circumstances. However, we wouldn’t talk you out of backing him either.

Instead, with more dry than wet weather forecast in the race – a contrast to earlier reports – and the race winner market a two horse race, we opt for bets on the Williams drivers.