At the qualifying session for the Grand ...

Published on 29 August 1998 by Verstappen Info Page

At the qualifying session for the Grand Prix of Belgium at Spa-Francorchamps, it was Mika Hakkinen for the ninth time this season who took the pole. With a time of 1.48.682 he was 0.163 seconds faster than his teammate David Coulthard.
A surpising third place took Damon Hill again proving the Jordan's are on their way up. He leaded Michael Schumacher with 0.07 seconds, followed by Irvine and Villeneuve.
During the whole qualifying session, Jos Verstappen was in duel with his teammate Rubens. In the first run, Rubens was faster, but in the second and third run Jos was faster. In his fourth and last run Jos breaked too late and spoiled this run and with a 17th time had to allow a gap of 0.5 seconds to Barrichello with the 14th time.
Qualifying was threatened in the beginning by a approaching rain and all the top drivers were on the track from the beginning, afraid for a wet track. But it stayed dry in Francorchamps.

According to Jos it went much better than during the morning sessions. They had changed the car setup completely. This is always a risk, but it had to be taken because the morningsetup didn't work at all. Although the car much improved, Jos said he still suffered from understear which, especially in the middle section of the circuit influenced his times.

For a complete overview you can take a look at our season page.