Every time you think you’ve seen the best of Lewis Hamilton, the current world champion takes it to another level. The Briton was in imperious form at the Hungaroring, a place he could call his backyard so successful that he had been to the Hungarian Grand Prix, while taking an impressive pole position for Mercedes.
The predicted rain never materialized, with Mercedes looking super comfortable from the start, facilitating the initial qualifying segment and then cruising to Q3, with no less than average tires. And when it came to fighting for pole, the Silver Arrows flipped their power units and stretched out their legs.
Hamilton set a new record with his first effort, and despite a few drops of rain in the air, he improved more than a tenth in his second and last race. The Mercedes W10 seemed glued to the track as it danced around the tight and twisted Hungaroring to take its 90th race pole and seventh in Hungary.
READ MORE: The race’s 90th pole required ‘absolute perfection’, says Hamilton
His teammate and championship leader Valtteri Bottas did not make things easy for him, the Finn improved in his second race but was lost by 0.107s as world champion Mercedes blocked the front row.
Racing Point has been surprising since pre-season testing, not only because they looked tantalizingly fast, but also because of the similarities the RP20 shares with the Mercedes W10 last year.
Ranking highlights: 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix
In Hungary, they have become Mercedes’ biggest threat, and the only other team fast and brave enough to qualify for Q2 on medium tires. It’s a sensational feat, given that they haven’t started higher than 16 in Hungary in any of the past two years.
Lance Stroll was the most impressive, finishing third alone in his second race in the top eight, with Sergio Pérez taking fourth place in his first appearance in the third quarter in Hungary since 2013.
Ferrari showed a new shape change after Austria’s misery, with Sebastian Vettel fifth, the team’s best performance of the season, about half a tenth faster than teammate Charles Leclerc, as both red cars arrived to Q3 for the first time in 2020
There was less joy at Red Bull, with Max Verstappen, who will have had high hopes of fighting for victory this weekend, in seventh place, his worst Q3 performance since the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix. His teammate, Alex Albon didn’t even manage to get the pole to shoot after his final run was ruined by traffic.
Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz demonstrated that McLaren made good profits overnight and both made it to Q3 as they ranked eighth and ninth respectively, with Pierre Gasly completing the top 10, having chosen not to set a time of lap after engine trouble in session.
|
one Luis Hamilton HAM Mercedes |
1: 13,447 |
|
two Valtteri Bottas BOT Mercedes |
1: 13,554 |
|
3 spear Walk STR Racing point |
1: 14,377 |
|
4 4 Sergio Perez BY Racing point |
1: 14,545 |
|
5 5 Sebastian Vettel VETERINARIAN Ferrari |
1: 14,774 |
P1 – Williams passes the two cars, while Racing Point sets the pace
There was a queue to get out of the pit lane at the beginning of the session, thanks to persistent rain clouds over the track. Mercedes comfortably set the starting pace, with Hamilton beating teammate Bottas and the two career points lined up third and fourth.
Red Bull, who broke the curfew to make configuration changes overnight, seemed to be having trouble with Albon lamenting on the team radio that he had no stability in low-speed turns. His sister team AlphaTauri was having a hard time as well, as Gasly reported that he had a big problem with the power unit.
The hierarchical order will be established as the session heads to the final stages, only for the track’s evolution to increase dramatically, with George Russell taking advantage to reach a sensational fifth, which became ninth on the checkered flag.
He was joined by teammate Nicholas Latifi when Williams pulled both cars out of Q1 for the first time this year. Mercedes sent its two cars again, although with used tires, the evolution of the track was so fast, but they were finally safe, since the two race points finished the first part of the qualification first and second.
Ferrari customers really struggled, the lack of power was evident, with the Haas and Alfa Romeo cars suffering the disruption, along with Daniil Kvyat of AlphaTauri. This was another unfortunate session for Raikkonen, who was eliminated in Q1 in four successive races for the first time since this qualifying format was adopted in 2006.
Knockouts: Magnussen, Kvyat, Grosjean, Giovinazzi and Raikkonen
Q2: Race Points Throw Dice with Medium Tire Strategy
Racing Point is recognized as a slippery racing operation and they proved it once again in the second segment of qualifying, boldly choosing to run the medium tires, in order to start the race on that rubber, which is 0.5s slower per lap than the soft.
It was a risk, but both Pérez and Stroll made the strategy work to advance to Q3, with Mercedes the only other team that managed to accomplish the feat. All the others who passed were on the softs.
Elsewhere, there was an impressive job from Gasly, who complained about a problem with the engine, but was unfortunately told she had to do her best with what she had as they couldn’t fix it. He did it properly, and it was enough to get him to Q3.
Red Bull had a mixed fortune, with Verstappen managing to pass comfortably as teammate Albon was thrown into traffic in his final run and failed to improve, forcing him to come out of 13th place, one place behind the awesome Russell at Williams.
Both Renaults also failed to make the cut, Ricciardo slipped out of the last corner, along with Latifi’s second Williams.
Knocked Out: Ricciardo, Russell, Albon, Ocon, Latifi
Classification of Hungary: Hamilton flies to the 90th pole position of his career
P3 – Mercedes pulls well, while Ferrari blushes
Ferrari is off to a terrible start for 2020, but they got a boost in Hungary with a car that was upgraded to Austria with performance good enough to allow them to block the third row, with Vettel taking the lead over his younger teammate Leclerc. .
But in terms of pole position, the fight was exclusively a battle between Hamilton and Bottas, and the former had the advantage from the start. Then it was a better step next time to score a record, with Bottas placing second to give Mercedes a 65 front-row lock.
The key quote
“It felt great, just overall, qualifying all together felt really solid,” said Hamilton. “We were constantly pushing the bar higher. Driving a car like this around here is just amazing. Today turn 11 was almost flat for us, which is pretty crazy, the speeds we passed there.
“It is impressive to see how far the technology has advanced. Valtteri did a great job today, applying a lot of pressure. Hungary has always been a good hunting ground for me, but I am also aware that there is a long way to go for Turn 1. “
Whats Next?
The Hungarian Grand Prix starts at 1510 local time, which is 1210 UTC. Rain is forecast for Sunday, although it was also forecast for Saturday, but in the end it did not materialize.
It will be an intriguing race to Turn 1 for both Mercedes, with the two race points looking threatening on the second row of the grid.
