Mercedes dominated Saturday’s Formula 1 qualifying session at the Hungaroring when Hamilton led a front-row lockout for the team, beating Bottas in the closing moments of Q3.
Bottas finished more than eight-tenths ahead of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll in third place, but his lap was not enough to negate Hamilton’s pole, which was 0.107 seconds faster.
Bottas explained after qualifying that he thought his last lap might be good enough for pole after recovering from some difficulties earlier in the session.
When asked if he felt a little frustration at losing pole by such a small margin, Bottas replied: “Yes, sure.
“I saw in practice that it was going to be a close battle between us at least in qualifying, and free practice 3 didn’t feel too bad.
“At the beginning of qualifying, until the end of Q3, I was struggling a bit in the first sector mainly, the braking of turn 1 was not so comfortable there, so I was wasting a bit of time.
“[At] Lap 2 [I] I also struggled a bit with the speed of the back of the car, but I think when the track got better the car was starting to come together.
“In the end, I must say that the lap was quite good actually. I thought I could really stand a chance with that lap, but Lewis was only a tenth faster.
“Ultimately, he did a better job in qualifying, that’s why he’s on pole.”
Bottas will head to Sunday’s race to defend his six-point lead in the F1 drivers’ championship over Hamilton, but he hasn’t finished on the podium in Hungary since 2017.
Mercedes appears to have a clear advantage over the rest of the field this weekend, with Bottas talking about his confidence in the W11 car’s long-term pace despite missing Friday’s second practice session in the rain.
“It is quite strong because of the small amount of data we managed to collect in practice one,” said Bottas.
“Of course, we lost a lot of races in practice two, so there are some question marks there, but overall the package we have should also be good in the race.”
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