Lewis Hamilton secured McLaren’s 150th pole position in Formula One with a dominant performance in qualifying at the Hungaroring.
The McLaren driver was completely in a different zone setting the quickest lap time throughout, and his two flying laps was good enough for his third pole position.
Hamilton’s margin over Romain Grosjean was more than four tenths of a second, which underlines his strong performance. As for Romain, this was his best qualifying result this season for Lotus.
Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel threatened to disrupt Hamilton’s momentum late on in Q3, only to lose time in the final sector. Despite this, Sebastian will start the Hungarian Grand Prix in third, alongside Jenson Button’s McLaren.
Kimi Raikkonen lines up fifth on the grid alongside championship leader Fernando Alonso, with Felipe Massa fractions away from out-qualifying his Ferrari team-mate for the first time this season.
Williams Pastor Maldonado, who appeared to be held up slightly behind Hamilton in Q3, qualified in eighth while making his first appearance in the session was Bruno Senna. The Brazilian did a great job to take ninth ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Senna’s Q2 lap meant Mark Webber was eliminated from the top-ten shootout. The Red Bull driver was unable to improve on his final run, leaving him only ninth with 60 seconds of the session to run. That became tenth when Hulkenberg came round, followed by Senna, which consigned Webber to an early exit as the flag fell.
Mercedes also endured a horrible qualifying, failing to break into Q3 with either car for the first time in 2012. Michael Schumacher was unable to recover from several wild moments and will start from P17, with Nico Rosberg four places ahead of him in P13.
The Silver Arrows pair were separated by the Sauber duo of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi and Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne.
The latter had sparked a mad Q1 scramble when he switched onto soft Pirellis and jumped up to fourth place, forcing most of the field to adopt the same tyre strategy.
As the laps played out Red Bull Racing appeared to be in trouble but the team was ultimately able to tell both drivers to ease off as the scrap for the final Q2 place boiled down to Kobayashi and the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo, with the Australian eventually losing out.
However, Ricciardo will start ahead of the Caterhams of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov, with the Finn almost six tenths clear of his team-mate.
A further second down the road were the Marussia’s Charles Pic meanwhile got the best of team-mate Timo Glock, the duo starting ahead of the HRTs of Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan.
Qualifying positions for the Hungarian Grand Prix:
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m20.953s
2. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m21.366s
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m21.416s
4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m21.583s
5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m21.730s
6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m21.844s
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m21.900s
8. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m21.939s
9. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m22.343s
10. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m22.847s
11. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m21.715s
12. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m21.813s
13. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m21.895s
14. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m21.895s
15. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m22.300s
16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m22.380s
17. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m22.723s
18. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m23.250s
19. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m23.576s
20. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m24.167s
21. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m25.244s
22. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m25.476s
23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m25.916s
24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m26.178s
107 per cent time: 1m27.519s
After taking his twenty-second career pole position, Lewis Hamilton has commented that he is concerned about Lotus’s long-race pace. Autosport.com has the story.
Lewis Hamilton hopes the upgrade package McLaren introduced at the German Grand Prix will help the team cope with the long-run pace of Lotus and Red Bull.
While the Briton’s own race at Hockenheim was spoiled by a puncture, the team showed impressive race pace in the form of Jenson Button’s charge to second.
Hamilton says such improvements will be vital in order to hold off Lotus and Red Bull, both of which have a reputation for being kind to the tyres, on the abrasive surface of the Hungaroring.
Lotus’s Romain Grosjean will start alongside Hamilton.
“There is no real secret [to Sunday’s race], it is the same as anyone else,” Hamilton said. “You have to keep your head cool and make sure you look after your tyres. Tyre strategy will be important tomorrow, and degradation will be interesting.
“I didn’t do any long runs this morning, I did mine yesterday [and] they were pretty good. The track was a little bit greener yesterday so its difficult to compare. We know Lotus is long through long runs and so is the Red Bull, so we just need to focus on us.
“Jenson showed those [German GP] upgrades are an improvement and hopefully I can show the same thing tomorrow. We have a long race tomorrow so lots can happen, but we need to keep cool.”
Hamilton said the upgrades allowed him to push harder than he has been able to in recent grands prix, ’empowering’ him throughout qualifying.
“It has been a really positive weekend so far, [we can] finally see the upgrades working this weekend, being able to put car in places I previously wasn’t able to,” he reported.
“I am always striving for the perfect lap, and to get that is intense and exciting and if you get it right it is incredibly empowering. This weekend we have obviously had pace, we knew it was possible but it was just a case of doing it.
“Considering we have had pace all weekend, [missing pole] would have been disappointing, so I am happy I have done it.
“This is motor racing – we are not saying we are relaxed about it, we know we have a lot of work to do. We [need to] make sure we start that work this weekend.”
Romain Grosjean was a delighted man after bouncing back from a disastrous weekend at Hockenheim to secure his best ever starting position ahead of the Hungarian GP.
Grosjean struggled in Germany and continued to be unable to match the pace he shown in the first part of the season in practice in Hungary.
However, overnight set-up changes meant the Frenchman returned to form in qualifying, securing second place on the grid ahead of tomorrow’s race.
“We started the weekend coming back from the German GP, which was a bit of disaster,” said Grosjean. “We worked hard, and analysed what went wrong, why I couldn’t get the feeling I had at the start of year.
“In final practice it was getting better, and then we found the speed, got back into the car and tried to understand what was wrong with it.
“Starting from the front row is special. We know overtaking is difficult so the first job is done. Hopefully tomorrow we will keep our race pace and be able to save our tyres as much as we want and get some good battles with the guy at the front.”
He added: “I think it was a lot of things together. I think in the last two races we were not where we had to be. We had some signs that things were not going as we wanted. The car was not handling as it should. So I think being second is a bit of a surprise after we struggled, but we improved lap after lap and I think this helped us.”
The Lotus driver, whose previous best qualifying effort was a third place, is optimistic his race pace will be even stronger than today.
“Normally it is better on high fuel than low fuel so it’s pretty good to be on the front row. We have been working a bit more on qualifying because it is a big key to the race. Hopefully the car will be good in the race. We have saved tyres and hopefully we have a good pace.”
Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen qualified in fifth position.
Source: Autosport.com
Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel could only managed third after qualifying and blamed the poor balance as the main issue rather than the revised engine mapping. Autosport.com has the story.
Sebastian Vettel does not believe that its revised engine mapping was the deciding factor in his failure to take pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Red Bull was forced to alter its engine mapping after the FIA clarified on Thursday that the team’s interpretation of torque curve rules in recent races had been incorrect.
The double world champion, who had been inside the top two in each of the last three dry qualifying sessions, will begin Sunday’s race from third place on the grid after setting a Q3 time over 0.4 seconds slower than polesitter Lewis Hamilton.
Vettel said, however, that it was not his new engine map, but a poor balance from his Red Bull RB8 that had been the key factor in his performance.
“I don’t think the engine map really affected us as much as people think,” the German said. “We were struggling a little to find the balance through the weekend but it has nothing to do with the mapping.
“We seem to have lost a little something compared to yesterday, so we’ve come into qualifying and failed to improve session-by-session.”
However, he is still hopeful of challenging for victory, despite having Romain Grosjean’s Lotus between himself and Hamilton’s McLaren on the grid.
“Romain was in reach today, but not Lewis. He was too fast,” he added. “But I still think we’ll have good race pace tomorrow because the pace with fuel in the car is better than the pace with no fuel.”
For the first time in Q3 Williams driver Bruno Senna achieved his best qualifying result with P9. Autosport.com has the details.
Bruno Senna was elated after making it into the top 10 for the first time year in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Brazilian had not been part of the Q3 shootout since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix, and had not qualified higher than 13th so far in 2012. But the Williams driver is now hoping to build on his position to score a strong result at the Hungaroring on Sunday.
“It’s been a good weekend so far and I’m really happy to be in the top 10 for the first time this season,” said Senna. “Q2 was extremely close, but we were able to get through. I could have done a better lap in Q3, but I’m pleased with the result and having both cars in Q3 is great for the team.
“The car has felt consistent and our long-run pace is looking good. We’re in a strong position for the start of the race, so from here? I’ll be pushing to bring home some good points for the team.”
His team-mate Pastor Maldonado will start from eighth position, but the Venezuelan felt that he could have done a better job had he not encountered so much traffic during the session.
“My qualifying performance was quite good, especially in Q2, but then in Q3 I came across traffic twice. I am happy for the team as we both did a good job to put the team near the front so it’s looking positive,” Maldonado said.
“It’s going to be a tough race here but an important one as getting points is our priority. The gaps are very close but we are both in the top 10 and now we need to push for a better position in the race. We have the car and qualifying place for a good finish tomorrow.”
This was a disappointing qualifying session for Mercedes and for Michael Schumacher, the seven-time world champion has commented that this is not good enough. Autosport.com has the news.
Michael Schumacher said that Mercedes just has to accept that it will not be competitive in the Hungarian Grand Prix, after the team’s worst showing of the season in qualifying.
Schumacher will start down in 17th position, four places behind his team-mate Nico Rosberg. Schumacher’s flying lap was compromised by dust left on track by Williams driver Pastor Maldonado, but the seven-time world champion said that he? was unlikely to have done much better.
“It was quite a tough and difficult day for us,” said Schumacher. “We have to clearly see that we did not have the pace to be in the front. I could have done a faster lap probably, without the dust having been brought to the track by Maldonado, but then I still do not think it would have brought me into Q3.
“I don’t think we could have done much more. This morning we practiced for long runs as yesterday we could not do that due to the rain, but I don’t think it compromised our performance.
“You have to accept the gap is quite big. We know the combination of track layout and temperature does not suit us too much, and we will try to make the best out of it tomorrow.”
His team-mate Rosberg said that the team needs to look at why the pair of F1 W03s have been so slow, and is hopeful that prioritising his race set-up during qualifying will help him have a stronger Sunday.
“That was a difficult qualifying for us today, and we need to analyse why it turned out like that,” said Rosberg.
“Qualifying is always a compromise and I was focused on finding a good race set-up for tomorrow as we may have more tyre degradation on our car than others, but it is still disappointing not to make Q3 by two tenths.”
Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta both felt they were unable to maximise Force India’s potential in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
While Hulkenberg did make it into Q3, he said he was not satisfied with his final effort after a self-inflicted mistake ruined his run.
Di Resta meanwhile said trying to secure decent track position forced him to push too early and spoiled his chances.
“I’m happy to be in the top ten but not satisfied with my quick lap in Q3,” Hulkenberg explained. “I tried too hard and made a mistake, got some dirt on my tyres and couldn’t recover the lap.
“It’s a bit frustrating because my laptime from Q2 would have been good enough for sixth on the grid.
“So I’m a bit disappointed, but at the same time I’m focussing on the positives because we looked competitive during the session. Now we need to do the same in the race and pick up points.”
Di Resta echoed the German’s sentiments, adding: “I think there was more potential in the car today, but I couldn’t get the laptime when it counted during Q2.
“The main issue was trying to find track position and I had to push very hard on my out lap to make some space, which probably took too much out of the tyres. It’s a shame because we were very quick in Q1 and the car has been working well here.
“We can still have a good race, but it won’t be easy with the high temperatures and the fact that it’s never easy to overtake here.”
Team principal Vijay Mallya admitted both drivers hadn’t quite got the maximum out of the car during qualifying.
“We showed good pace today, but we didn’t quite maximise our performance when it mattered,” he said. “The good news is that we’ve shown that we have a quick car here in Budapest and hopefully we can demonstrate that again tomorrow when it really counts.”
Source: Autosport.com
Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi ‘doesn’t understand’ why the team was struggling in qualifying at the Hungaroring. Autosport.com has the details.
Kamui Kobayashi admitted he was baffled as to why his Sauber team struggled to get its tyres working in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Kobayashi, who finished in fourth position in the previous race in Germany, was knocked out in Q2 after Sauber continued to struggle for pace at the Hungaroring.
The Japanese driver, who said it would have taken a miracle for him to move into Q3, said he was not surprised to have finished in 15th position.
“Well, after we have been struggling in all free practice sessions since we got here the qualifying result doesn’t come as a complete surprise,” he said. “To me getting through to Q3 would have been a miracle today.
“We don’t understand why we can’t manage to get the tyres to work at this track, and this goes for both compounds as I can’t find the grip I need.
“Perhaps it is track related and has to do with bumps or dust or even something else. It will be another tough race for us because overtaking is particularly difficult here, but certainly we won’t give up and will try our best tomorrow.”
His team-mate Sergio Perez completed a low-key day for Sauber, the Mexican winding up 14th, which he believes is the maximum he could have hoped for.
“Basically this was all that was possible for us today,” he said. “For some reason all weekend we have been struggling with the balance of the car and how to understand how the tyres work on this track.
“I feel on my car we made a big step forward in regard to the balance between free practice this morning and qualifying. Q1 actually didn’t look bad at all, but the car still behaved inconsistently and in Q2 it was so difficult to put a perfect lap together that I didn’t make it into Q3.”
Fernando Alonso has ruled out fighting for a place on the podium if the Hungarian Grand Prix takes place in the dry.
The Spanish driver, the leader of the championship and the winner of the previous race in Germany, was unable to fight for pole position in qualifying on Saturday.
Alonso will start from sixth position after finishing nearly a second off the time set by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver reckons a top four is the best he can hope for in the race unless rain hits the circuit.
“In the dry, we are not yet able to fight for the very top places, and we are well aware of that,” said Alonso. “Usually, in the race, the situation improves and so we hope we can finish in the top four or five when it’s time for the chequered flag.
“Our aim will be to mark our closest rival in the drivers’ classification and today we know we will be starting ahead of him. Let’s see what the situation will be tomorrow evening.”
The two-time champion admitted the result had not come as a surprise to him give his car’s form in practice.
“We were expecting a very difficult qualifying and so it was,” he added. “We saw at least eight cars – two McLarens, two Force Indias, two Red Bulls and Lotus, running very competitively and therefore just getting to Q3 was in itself a difficult target to reach,” said Alonso.
“We did it and we also managed to slightly improve the handling of the car in the final part, working on the tyre pressures and the front wing. We definitely didn’t get a perfect lap: we lost a handful of tenths in a few corners.”
Alonso warned, however, that if the rain hits the Hungaroring then his prospects will change completely.
“We will have to be super concentrated, especially in how we manage the tyres. It’s true that overtaking is definitely not easy here, but tomorrow, it might yet rain and we know that can change everything.”
Team-mate Felipe Massa will start from seventh position.
Source: Autosport.com