Belgian Grand Prix: Nico Rosberg starts at the front of the grid after setting fastest qualifying time with Lewis Hamilton calling it a day after three laps
LEWIS HAMILTON called it a day after just four laps of qualifying for the Belgian GP.
The defending world champion was already guaranteed to start at the back for tomorrow's race after taking THREE new power units.
So he never bothered troubling the laps times, saving himself both mileage and tyres for the race, where he has already admitted it was a case of damage limitation.
Hamilton's team-mate Nico Rosberg took pole ahead of local hero Max Verstappen while Kimi Raikkonen out-qualified his Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton said: "The car is okay. It was definitely a weird qualifying session for me. Today was really important for us to make sure the car was right for tomorrow. There was no point in showing any pace.
"We are not easily the quickest here and with the temperatures it is probably the worst time to take the penalties.
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"We are all going to have massive degradation, it is going to be two or three stops, I don't know who is going to be able to look after their cars or not.
"We are all struggling to look after our tyres so it is not going to be a cool easy breezy day where I'm just picking them off one by one. I might get past three cars tomorrow and my tyres might be gone."
Jenson Button qualified in ninth place while fellow Brit Jolyon Palmer qualified in 14th in his Renault but is bumped up to 13th on the grid due to Esteban Gutierrez' penalty.
It is Palmer's best qualifying performance of the season and he said: "I was in Q2 in Hockenheim too, so that's two in a row now and it shows we are making progress."
However, there was huge disappointment for Button's McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, who trundled to an early halt with a mechanical problem.
The Spaniard is now facing a new engine change in his car which could see him battle Hamilton for the last spot on the grid.
He said: "It is painful when you have these reliability problems but we need to find out what's still fragile on the power unit to make sure we have an engine next year that is capable of fighting for the championship."
Jilted Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat also had another miserable afternoon and was eliminated in Q1.
He groaned: "We have to accept it and move forward. We will do our race but it will not be easy. There is a long straight, so I have no expectations."