Qualifying Report - Electrifying Hamilton pole

Lewis Hamilton
© Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.

By Peter Habicht

Lewis Hamilton took an electrifying pole position today for Mercedes GP, besting the Red Bull-Honda of Max Verstappen by 0.003s for his ninth career pole at the Hungaroring, the most by a driver at circuit, and his 104 career pole.

Verstappen lacked confidence to attack corners this weekend, but Lewis shared his sense of progress this season: “We’ve been pushing so hard to get a pole, it feels like the first time… I didn’t expect coming today that we’d be fighting for pole so when I went into that last run I gave it absolutely everything… there was nothing left in it.”

McLaren has the second row on the grid with Lando Norris and rookie Oscar Piastri ahead of the Alfas of Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas who sandwiched Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in sixth. Aston’s Fernando Alonso took eighth with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top ten.

Zhou said, “I feel absolutely amazing… P5 was not expected, we did see we had the pace this weekend and qualifying was literally on the edge every lap. Q1, top of the table, really surprised and I knew I had a chance… I was pushing on the limit so when it matters we delivered especially on the last lap in Q3 so really happy with the starting grid.”

Today’s qualifying format involved the use of each of the three compound tires in an alternative tire allocation, starting off teams with hard, medium and soft tires exclusively for each of the knockout rounds. The end result saw seven of 10 teams represented in Q3, and was done with the aim of decreasing the total number of tires sent around the world for the series and improving Formula 1’s sustainability.

Improving conditions around the circuit meant more grip and temperature later in each round, with teams and drivers timing their hot laps not to coincide with traffic as drivers pushed to avoid relegation. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was best of the rest while not quick enough around late in Q2 due to circuit congestion. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took 12th ahead of the returning Daniel Ricciardo in his Alpha Tauri, Aston’s Lance Stroll and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

The first knockout round saw Williams Alex Albon, Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and a frustrated George Russell who will start from 18th on the grid after leaving his hot lap attempt too late as traffic gathered ahed of the Briton, holding up his attempt on a warming track surface.

Afterwards, he shared his disappointment: “Really disappointed because we didn’t need to take so many risks we went out with one lap at the end with one of the few cars who did that car was more than quick enough to get through to Q2, Q3 so you know its rare we make these kind of mistakes … yeah you get what you deserve if you don’t do things right…and we got punished for sure…we didn’t need to be in that position at that time…it wasn’t good enough from our side.”

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Logan Sargeant will start from the last row tomorrow, race start is 3pm.