Hamilton: I’m so happy like this is my first pole!

It has been more than a year and a half since Lewis Hamilton clinched the last pole position, but today at the Hungaroring, the seven-time world champion is three thousandths ahead of Max Verstappen and will start from first place on Sunday. Of course, after winning qualifying, the Mercedes driver did not hide that he was overcome with emotions.

Lewis Hamilton (1st): “In retrospect, a crazy year and a half, and now I just lost my voice, because I was screaming with joy in the car! It’s an incredible emotion and I’m so thankful to the team for their hard work – everyone gave their best to finally win this pole position! I’m looking forward like this is the first time!

Many thanks to the fans, of course – every year the stands at the Hungaroring are packed.

When I arrived at the track today I didn’t expect to be able to fight for pole position, but in the last attempt I gave everything and squeezed everything out of the car.

To win pole again, literally every member of our team had to overcome enormous difficulties, there were successes and failures along the way, but no one lost confidence, and by joining forces we did everything we could to make the car more competitive.

In the 4th and 11th turns we lose more than other teams and I just hoped that I could stay on the track, although it was very difficult. There are still many difficulties ahead, we understand that, but I hope today’s result shows that we are on the right track.

Let’s see if I can sleep tonight! We will try to analyze everything as best we can and prepare for tomorrow’s race to fight for victory. It won’t be easy though, because Lando is just doing a great job – it’s really nice to see McLaren showing such good results – and Max is always ahead and everyone knows what he can do.

George Russell (18e): “The result is frustrating because not so many risks were necessary. We were one of the few to complete a single lap at the end of the first part of qualifying, as the car was more than fast, allowing us to pass both the second session and the final.

We rarely make such mistakes, but I think those who do wrong deserve such consequences. Only we didn’t do well enough in the first session, which could have been avoided. But for a whole session we behaved differently from everyone else, and then in the last corner I was overtaken on my lap outside the pits by four cars, including Pierre Gasly.

Already in the first corner on a fast lap I lost two or three tenths, the tires had not warmed up at all and it is quite normal that we drove slower than necessary, and I could not make up for it.