Nico Rosberg outpaced Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to take his fourth straight pole in a tricky wet session at Spa.

It was also only the fifth time in 12 races that Mercedes has locked out the front row, an indication that it hasn't always gone to plan for the team. Meanwhile Hamilton has not been on pole since the Spanish GP in May.

Over the lunch break, a heavy rain storm that even included hail ensured that the track was soaking wet for qualifying, and further showers meant that the track remained wet for the duration. However, despite the conditions, it proved to be relatively uneventful as Mercedes utterly dominated all three sessions.

Rosberg was fastest in Q1, but the tables were turned in Q2 as Hamilton pipped him. However when it mattered in Q3 Hamilton had some brake issues, so he struggled to get a clean lap in. After a couple of moments he ended up 0.228 second behind Rosberg.

“It was not quite as difficult out there as on some other occasions as conditions were always intermediate,” said Rosberg, who has never been on the podium in Spa. “It's only qualifying, and a long race tomorrow, but I'm happy. We have a great car here, we're leading the way, and it's so cool to see that.”

“I had a glazed front left brake so the car was pulling to the right,” said a clearly disappointed Hamilton. “This is a circuit where, like all circuits, you need to have confidence in the brakes.”

There was a huge gulf to the rest, with a 2.126 margin from Rosberg on pole to Sebastian Vettel in third. Red Bull expected to struggle at a track where straightline speed is so important, so the weather obviously helped.

“I think it was the best we could do today,” said Vettel. “It was obviously very tight behind the Mercedes. It was tricky out there, especially in low downforce, and especially through Eau Rouge.”

Fernando Alonso jumped up to fourth right at the end, ensuring that there are two World Champions on the second row and waiting to pounce if the Mercs hit any trouble. Daniel Ricciardo took fifth in the other Red Bull, while Valtteri Bottas was only sixth at a track where Williams was expected to push Mercedes hard. Kevin Magnussen was seventh for McLaren, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, and Jenson Button.

The fastest driver not to make it out of Q2 was Daniil Kvyat, who lines up 11th, ahead of Toro Rosso team mate Jean-Eric Vergne. Sergio Perez took 13th, ahead of Adrian Sutil, Romain Grosjean and Jules Bianchi, the Marussia driver having done well to progress from Q1.

Those who failed to make it out of Q1 were led by Pastor Maldonado in 17th, the Lotus driver struggling to make up for losing all of FP2 yesterday to a crash and not helping his cause with a spin. Surprisingly the next driver who failed to progress was Nico Hulkenberg, who usually shines in mixed conditions. The German reported that he had problems with his brakes getting too cold.

The field was completed by Max Chilton, Esteban Gutierrez, Andre Lotterer and Marcus Ericsson. Rookie Lotterer, who has plenty of wet weather experience from Japan, was a second clear of his Caterham team mate.