The Mercedes team dominated the field in a wet qualifying session ahead of the 2014 Belgium GP.

Nico Rosberg mastered slippery conditions to out-qualify teammate Lewis Hamilton by two tenths of a second. Sebastian Vettel secured third position for Red Bull Racing but his fastest time was some two seconds slower than the high flying Mercedes pair. Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top five grid positions.

The star of the first part of qualifying was Marussia’s Jules Bianchi as the young Frenchman brilliantly advanced to the second session of the one hour session. Andre Lotterer, who has taken over from Kamui Kobayashi, impressed in the Caterham by out-qualifying teammate Marcus Ericcson by a full second. Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India was the surprise casualty in the first session of qualifying. The German complained about losing brake temperature throughout the session.

Neither Toro Rosso driver was able to advance beyond the second session of qualifying. Lotus’ Romain Grosjean out-qualified his teammate, Pastor Maldonado, but failed to make any further impression and will start tomorrow’s grand prix in 15th position.

Despite a brief appearance by the sun in the final part of qualifying all drivers remained on the intermediate tyres for the fastest runs of the session. Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were relegated to sixth and ninth respectively in the tricky condition. However, tomorrow’s potential forecast of fair weather is likely to reinstate the Martini sponsored team’s hopes.