Mercedes made it a 1-2 with Lewis Hamilton taking F1 Hungarian GP pole from Valtteri Bottas, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third.
Q1:
The first part of the F1 Hungarian GP qualifying saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen lead the way from Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, but crucially he was 0.210s ahead of the Brit to start off after some troubles in practice.
While several improved on their second run and jumped into the Top 10, but despite improvements from AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m17.919s) and Williams’ George Russell (1m17.944s), it did not propel them into Q2, as they ended up 16th and 17th.
Williams’ Nicholas Latifi (1m18.036s) was 18th after talking engine cuts, as Haas’ Nikita Mazepin (1m18.922s) was 19th, where Mick Schumacher couldn’t make it out. The chassis was not damaged in the FP3 incident but he has a new gearbox for the Hungarian GP.
There was a moment for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, where the Spaniard tried to avoid the Frenchman by taking the inside line in the right-hander, but it looked a bit too clumsy on his part, which could hand him a penalty.
Q2:
The second part in F1 Hungarian GP saw a strategy game by Mercedes and Red Bull duo, with their drivers opting for the medium compound. It was Hamilton leading Verstappen until the red flag for a crash for Ferrari’s Sainz in the final corner.
Sainz lost on the kerb carrying too much speed to hit the barrier. The car continued on and he tried to continue on as well but was asked to step out. Before that, teammate Charles Leclerc popped up to second, pushing Verstappen to third.
Among the medium runners, Bottas was seventh and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to eighth. Also, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo stood 10th with teammate Lando Norris 11th, while Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi lost his first flier due to red flag.
Post red flag, only Bottas stayed on the medium compound, while Perez shifted to soft. Both Verstappen and Hamilton did so too but it looked like an explanatory thing, but not for the Dutchman, who went quickest with a 1m15.650s, to change his strategy.
Hamilton was sixth and Bottas eighth on the medium tyres, while Verstappen and Perez in fourth are to start on the soft. The Dutchman, though, was 0.735s faster than Norris, with Gasly ending up third in the session after late improvements.
Outside the Top 10, Ricciardo (1m16.871s) was knocked out by 0.077s after a late improvement from Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. A bad middle sector cost the Australian, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (1m16.893s) losing out to his teammate in 12th.
The two Alfa Romeo cars were 13th and 14th, as Kimi Raikkonen (1m17.564s) finally managed to beat Giovinazzi (1m17.583s) in a qualifying session after long, while Sainz ended up 15th with no time.
Q3:
The third part of F1 Hungarian GP qualifying saw Mercedes’ Hamilton lead the way with a 1m15.419s from Bottas and Verstappen, where the Dutchman was 0.565s off from the provisional pole-sitter’s time. Perez was fourth but a second away from the lead car.
It was mixed behind where Norris set his first time on the used set, while Vettel (1m16.750s) was on the alternate strategy, going out late on his only set of tyres, to end up eighth then when others came out for their second and final runs.
There was literally no improvements ahead, especially from Hamilton, which didn’t matter as he took pole in F1 Hungarian GP from Bottas (1m15.734s) and Verstappen (1m15.840s). The Finn improved in his final sector, while the latter did a bit to be 0.421s down.
Perez (1m16.421s) couldn’t make it to the chequered flag to end up fourth after a the slow run from the Top 3 drivers ahead, as Gasly (1m16.483s) was fifth from Norris (1m16.489s), who managed to improve on the new set.
Leclerc (1m16.496s) was only seventh in the end, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (1m16.653s) eighth from teammate Fernando Alonso (1m16.715s), as Vettel rounded out the Top 10.