Hamilton finds extra gear for searing pole in Hungary, Bottas P2 for Mercedes front row lockout; Surprising Racing Point qualify 3-4 as Red Bull and Ferrari chase pace
Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton again showed his superb class in a race car, besting his game teammate Valtteri Bottas to take pole with a searing track record lap of 1:13.447. Despite lowering skies at the Hungaroring on Saturday rain never materialized, precluding another jumbled wet weather qualifying result like last week’s torrential and topsy turvy Styrian quali sessions. Instead the track just kept getting faster and faster as qualifying wore on and it rubbered in, enabling the cream to rise to the top, at least in terms of single lap pace. That saw Hamilton best Bottas by just over a tenth in the internecine battle between what are once again clearly the best cars in the field. But behind the predictable Mercedes front row lockout surprises abounded. Biggest of all was the outrageous speed of the Racing Points of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez, who qualified P3 and P4 respectively and will monopolize the second row on the grid come race day. Despite facing increasing criticism and formal protests for their 2019 Mercedes lookalike cars, the former midfield stalwart pink clad Racing Points insolently pushed the Red Bull and Ferrari powerhouses further down the grid than either of those elite teams would normally expect to find themselves.
But even though they were relegated to the third row, Ferrari still had to be mildly pleased after a fairly disastrous start to the 2020 campaign. After crashing each other last weekend in Austria for the dreaded double DNF, Sebastian Vettel wrung the neck of his so far underwhelming SF1000, sliding it precariously around this tricky, technical circuit for a time good enough for P5. His junior but arguably more talented teammate, Charles Leclerc, was P6 and is no doubt still feeling chastened from his role as the instigator of the Ferraris’ wreck in Styria. The Prancing Horses will be hoping their long term race pace is superior to that of the speedy Racing Point usurpers lined up in front of them. And of course the team from Maranello and tifosi everywhere will be looking for any sort of positive result tomorrow to what has so far looked to be a hopelessly mediocre season.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen qualified a perplexing P7, perhaps due to some ominous fluctuations in the output of the Honda power plant and some unpredictable handling charatertismcs of the RB16 chassis at the limit. Worse still for this year’s enigmatic Red Bull team, their second driver Alexander Albon could muster no better than the thirteenth fastest time and was knocked out in Q2. Clearly struggling with his confidence after a star-crossed, collision-filled start to the year, Albon will be looking to redeem himself by making up a ton of positions at the difficult-to-overtake Hungaroring. Conversely that increases the odds of also him getting involved in yet another wheel-banging clash with someone else mired in the midfield is a real possibility. Vertsappen will simply looking for any semblance of drivability when the Grand Prix starts and hopefully he’ll have what he needs to at least hunt down the Ferraris in front of him.
Rounding out the top ten qualifiers for the Hungarian Gran Prix, Lando Norris was P8 and Carlos Sainz P9 in this year’s much improved McLaren MCL35 chassis. And Pierre Gasly was tenth fastest for AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso), although the Frenchman suffered engine issues that saw him turn no Q3 laps and may force a grid penalty for any necessary changes or repairs made overnight.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Hungarian GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:14.907 | 1:14.261 | 1:13.447 | |
| 2 | 1:15.474 | 1:14.530 | 1:13.554 | |
| 3 | 1:14.895 | 1:15.176 | 1:14.377 | |
| 4 | 1:14.681 | 1:15.394 | 1:14.545 | |
| 5 | 1:15.455 | 1:15.131 | 1:14.774 | |
| 6 | 1:15.793 | 1:15.006 | 1:14.817 | |
| 7 | 1:15.495 | 1:14.976 | 1:14.849 | |
| 8 | 1:15.444 | 1:15.085 | 1:14.966 | |
| 9 | 1:15.281 | 1:15.267 | 1:15.027 | |
| 10 | 1:15.767 | 1:15.508 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live at 9AM on ESPN here in the States — it features the commercial free Sky Sports feed. Hope to see you then to find out if Hamilton can stay ahead of his teammate Bottas and if the Racing Points are really that much better than Ferrari and Red Bull over the long run.