It’s been a long month of holiday for the Formula One circus, but things get going this weekend at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

The Ardennes has its own micro-climate in late summer, a time when the peace of the forest can be broken without warning by a sopping cloudburst. So it proved on Saturday, as a qualifying shoot-out that began under picture-perfect skies ended in a spell of rain-lashed chaos through which Lewis Hamilton, drawing upon all his mastery in the wet, swept to a record fifth pole at the Belgian Grand Prix.  “That was,” he said, still catching his breath, “the toughest session I can remember doing.”

Lewis Hamilton takes superb Belgian GP pole at a damp Spa-Francorchamps