Lewis Hamilton returns to F1 pole position at the Hungarian GP Qualifying, his first pole since December 2021 pipping Max Verstappen to the top spot by a mere 0.003 seconds.
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F1 Hungarian GP Qualifying – Q1
With the new qualifying system being used for the first time (each driver has 11 sets of tyres instead of 13 and has to use hard in Q1, medium in Q2 and Soft in Q3), will we see a surprise? It didn’t take long for the first surprise of the day to come to the fore as George Russell, last seasons pole sitter missed out on Q2 and starts a lowly 18th for the Grand Prix tomorrow.
Along with Russell, Albon, Tsunoda, Magnussen and Sargent were all knocked out of Qualifying 1.
F1 Hungarian GP Qualifying – Q2
Heading into Qualifying 2, an extra spot was up for grabs after the elimination of Russell in the previous session. Both Alfa Romeo’s were having a great afternoon, both cars were comfortably into Q2 and looking solid for a rare Q3 performance.
Daniel Ricciardo’s return to Formula 1 seems to have been vindicated with the Australian out qualifying his teammate, Tsunoda at the first time of asking.
Ferrari were doing Ferrari things with Charles Leclerc making it into Q3 at the expense of his teammate Carlos Sainz who will start the Grand Prix in 11th.
Another notable elimination were the Alpine pair, who will start the Grand Prix twelfth and fifteenth respectively. Alpine’s season is slipping faster and faster into the depths of mediocrity.
Qualifying 3
The race for pole was set up to be an intriguing contest with a couple of the front runners missing and Verstappen not quite as fast as we have seen this season.
The early pace was set by Max Verstappen, who set the initial fastest lap, ahead of Hamilton and Norris, however current championship leader was unable to increase his advantage on his later run. Verstappen’s teammate, Sergio Perez had another session to forget, with a ninth place finish four tenths behind Max.
Honourable mention has to go to the Alfa Romeo team who will start fifth (Zhou) and seventh (Bottas). The Alfa’s have been on pace all weekend and have a great opportunity to secure a good haul of points tomorrow.
The session belonged to Lewis Hamilton, who takes his first pole since December 2021. Lewis’s emotion was evident, the 7 time champion taking a few moments to compose himself before exiting the car to cheers from the grandstands. Can Lewis take the win tomorrow? Will He Rise Again?
Honestly, it feels like my first pole, believe it or not,” he added. I know there’s been a lot and it feels strange to say that when there’s been 104. I don’t remember the last time I had a pole – it feels so long ago. We were not expecting that coming into the weekend. We didn’t have an upgrade or anything like that. We’ve made small tweaks to our rear wing and front wing but the car felt terrible yesterday. We did some really, really great work overnight and we were relieved it felt good this morning but not in shooting range of the other guys – they seemed too far ahead for us but as we started going through the qualy session… I nearly didn’t get through Q1 and then things just got better and better. I would say what I have been searching for with this car is to get confidence. Confidence to really send it. I know how to do the fastest lap pretty much everywhere but there are ones that it’s more natural and comes easier to connect for me corner by corner, sector by sector and this is one of them tracks. With this last run, I knew I needed a tenth or so, or more, to get ahead of these guys and I just sent it. I was like nothing to lose, give it absolutely everything you’ve got. I threw it into the high speed corners trying to match their speed and hope it wasn’t too far off. It was a great, great lap.
Lewis Hamilton Reacts to His Hungarian GP Pole
F1 Hungarian GP: Qualifying – Lewis Return’s to Pole