Sebastian Vettel denies Lewis Hamilton pole for Belgian Grand Prix - The Guardian

Sebastian Vettel made it nine pole positions in 12 races, pushing Lewis Hamilton into second place in qualifying with Mark Webber and Felipe Massa on the second row for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

For a second Hamilton was top of the timings before being pipped by Vettel at the end. But it was an even more disappointing session for Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button, who failed to make the top 10 for the first time this season; he will start the race in 13th place.

There was also an incident involving Hamilton and the Williams driver Pastor Maldonado in Q2. Maldonado appeared to cut across Hamilton and the collision resulted in the British driver having to have his nose cone replaced for Q3.

"I'll have to look at it," said Hamilton. "The Williams was just sitting there. It was very slow. I had to try and get past, which I did. I saw Maldonado approaching quite quickly – he happened to swipe across me.

"My front wing was quite damaged. I'll sit here and wait for the stewards to call me up rather than going back to McLaren. Once the flag was out and the red light was on there is no need to be racing. There should never be an incident but unfortunately there was."

When Maldonado was asked whether he had made a deliberate move on Hamilton he replied: "No, no, I don't." He added: "It was a difficult moment, there was no reason from my side to have contact and from the side of Lewis. It wasn't rainy conditions and we need to understand what happened. There was no need for contact after the chequered flag." Both drivers were summoned by the stewards.

It was typical Spa weather, with rain and sunshine making it difficult for the team to piece together a strategy. Button was fast early on but ended up not qualifying for the top-10 shoot-out. "It was a misunderstanding," he said. "I did my first lap and then cooled the tyres not knowing I didn't have any laps left. I was second quickest when I did my lap and then I didn't get another chance. Wow, that is massively disappointing and a huge shock. A big mistake on our part. In every practice session we've been in top three. It's tough being back in 13th but we've got to deal with it."

Talking about his two McLaren drivers, the team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, said: "We should have been more proactive. Jenson backed out on a quickening track and on that last lap he should have been pushing.

"Jenson lifted. We should have been quicker to react and tell him to keep pushing. It's disappointing. We didn't communicate quickly enough."

Whitmarsh described the Hamilton-Maldonado clash as "fairly extraordinary". He added: "Suddenly Maldonado chopped across him and he could easily have taken Lewis out of qualifying. We were lucky to be able to get Lewis back out there. We changed the front wing but I don't think we should be saying he would have been on pole. It was an inconvenient incident."

Provisional starting grid for Belgian F1 Grand Prix

1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault

2 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 3 Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault

4 Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari

5 Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes

6 Jaime Alguersuari (Spain) Toro Rosso - Ferrari

7 Bruno Senna (Brazil) Renault

8 Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari

9 Sergio Pérez (Mexico) Sauber - Ferrari

10 Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Renault

11 Sébastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso - Ferrari

12 Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber - Ferrari

13 Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren

14 Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Williams - Cosworth

15 Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Mercedes

16 Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Williams - Cosworth

17 Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) Lotus - Renault

18 Paul Di Resta (Britain) Force India - Mercedes

19 Jarno Trulli (Italy) Lotus - Renault 20 Timo Glock (Germany) Virgin - Cosworth

21 Jérôme d'Ambrosio (Belgium) Virgin - Cosworth

22 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) HRT - Cosworth

23 Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) HRT - Cosworth

24 Michael Schumacher (Germany) Mercedes