Webber - First lap counted

Webber: On pole at Spa

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Mark Webber reckons his flying start to the final qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps allowed him to secure a fifth pole position of the season at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The current championship leader proved the man to beat on Saturday afternoon after setting a time of one minute 45.778 seconds on his first flying lap around the 7.004-kilometre track.

When a brief rain shower late in the 10-minute session prevented Webber's rivals from beating his time the Australian, who turned 34 on Friday, found himself in receipt of a late birthday present.

"We knew the first lap was going to be pretty important because round here it is so unpredictable. The weather has been unique, even for Spa. It has been so on and off," he said.

"So to have a pretty clean qualifying was very important. The first lap I was happy with, but you never know in this company if it is enough or not.

"It was nice to be on pole halfway through (Q3) and going into second run, but the weather made it more difficult to improve on our second attempt."

Impossible

Webber did come close to losing pole after a strong late effort from Lewis Hamilton took the McLaren man to within just 0.085s.

"Lewis did a good lap on his second lap, but I think we would still have been quick enough to have a crack here," a confident Webber asserted.

The weekend has brought plenty of rain so far and with the chance of more to come on Sunday, Webber reckons the weather will continue to play its part.

However, with Fernando Alonso - who qualified 10th - the only frontrunner to start out of position on Sunday, he thinks they generally did well in beating the conditions.

"It is virtually impossible (to predict the weather)," Webber added. "The showers that pop up here and there have no real consistency.

"This is a special venue, as we all know, tucked in the forests. Having said that, it wasn't that difficult today in terms of picking the weather, it was more of the times everyone knew they needed to do.

"It's reflected in the grid; in most people being where they should be within reason, and not too much of a mixed-up position."

Hamilton believes he would have taken pole from Webber had he had a good first run, but was still happy to have made it on to the front row.

"It was quite a tricky session through the whole qualifying," the 2008 world champion said.

"I got out for my first lap, the first one out. Turn 14 was drying up but I was the first one to get there and didn't know how much to push. It was a bit of a disappointing first lap, I wasn't able to hold the time out of the tyres.

"Then I got the opportunity on the second lap which was a good lap apart from turn one. That was wet and a little bit damp, I lost time there. But the rest of the track was dry and I was able to utilise the tyres and pull out the time.

Good spirits

"I think I was a tenth behind Mark, there was the potential there to be in front in P1, but to be P2 on the front row is a good position for us."

Although many have predicted that McLaren's superior Mercedes power and F-duct could hand it an advantage over Red Bull this weekend, Hamilton suggested he would hold his trademark aggression in check on the opening lap of the race.

"We are on the front row - the positive thing is we are up there and in for the fight," he said. "I will be aggressive, but I have to be cautious at the same time."

Team-mate Jenson Button was not in such good spirits, however, after qualifying in fifth position.

The defending world champion suggested that the unexpected shower in the final minutes of the session prevented him from posting a better time.

"We only had one set of the new option tyres left, so we chose to use them for the last run in Q3," said Button.

"Unfortunately it started to rain - which we hadn't expected - and that cost me 0.3s in the first sector. It was time I managed to make up in the second and third sectors, but we're fifth."