Hamilton takes pole at Spa, Ocon P3! - Qualifying summary & results

Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position at Spa Francorchamps ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, with Esteban Ocon grabbing P3 in his Force India in what was one of the most crazy qualifying rounds in recent memory.

The first session of the three saw a lot of cars going out on the track immediately, with the chance of rain at 90%. Getting a dry lap in was vital, in case rain would start to fall later.

Kimi Raikkonen led the table on the soft tyre, with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton filling out the top three. Both Ferrari and Mercedes cars were the only ones on softs, the rest of the paddock opted for supersofts.

At the back, it was four usual suspects who dropped out of qualifying. Both Williams cars of Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll manned P18 and P19 respectively, with homeboy Stoffel Vandoorne embarrassingly finishing last in his McLaren. He talked about showing the world he was worthy of his seat; that's not the way to do it. His teammate Fernando Alonso did slightly better in P17, but it's just not good enough from McLaren as a team.

Carlos Sainz was the surprising last one to drop out, as the Spaniard had no grip in his hot laps, he yelled on his radio. Still, it's not a good sign for Daniel Ricciardo, who will man his place in 2019. Or maybe Sainz was just getting used to the McLaren-disappointment already.

Nico Hülkenberg, who'll start from the back of the grid after a full engine change, didn't even bother in Q2. He stayed in without setting a lap, which meant there was one more place in Q3 to be won.

Again, Kimi Raikkonen led the way in Q2, with the Ice Man doing a 1:41.6 in his Ferrari, keeping away both Mercedes cars. Daniel Ricciardo looked slower than usual, as the Aussie only mustered P8 in his Red Bull, half a second off of his teammate Max Verstappen, who was in P5. 

The other two teams who made it to Q3 were Haas and Force India, with the latter looking the quickest out of all midfield cars. Sergio Pérez was at danger of dropping out of the top 10, but suddenly drove a P6-worthy lap, beating even Ricciardo. Very promising from Force India, who will of course start with 0 points again this weekend after re-naming the team.

Both Toro Rosso's and Saubers couldn't get the pace to make it to Q3, with Gasly beating Hartley and Leclerc continuing his streak of beating Ericsson.

Everybody headed out as soon as the green light was out, but then, everybody went back in after one lap. It started raining! Valtteri Bottas almost crashed, with the supersofts having zero grip in the rain.

The Force India's tried one more lap, but with Perez almost hitting the wall at Eau Rouge, they decided they maybe also needed intermediates.

Ferrari were one-two after their first laps, with Sebastian Vettel this time leading Kimi Raikkonen by two tenths. Max Verstappen was third, with the Dutchman thriving in wet conditions.

But then, at the death, everything changed. Raikkonen and both Red Bulls went in, which proved to be a vital mistake. Hamilton, who stayed out, had a flying lap and went into pole, stealing it off of Vettel, and then Esteban Ocon grabbed P3! Sergio Perez was P4, meaning Force India locked out the second starting row on the grid. Fascinating stuff.

A very weird session with a thrilling conclusion, we can't wait what happens tomorrow during the race. We'll see you then!