George Russell won qualifying in Hungary

Cloudy. Dry. Air +21…22С, track +27…30

Qualifying at the Hungaroring is the most important session of the weekend. It is difficult to overtake on the Hungarian track, even with DRS, the starting position has serious consequences for the result, there are no strategic options – if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, everyone will try to complete the race with one pit stop. In the past ten years, the race in Hungary has been won by the pole winner five times.

Three days of the Hungarian weekend – three different weather conditions. It was hot on Friday – and Ferrari racers were confidently leading the practice, but the information gathered and the settings found were almost useless on Saturday, when it rained in the morning, bringing coolness and washing away the layer of used rubber – in the during the third practice showed Nicholas Latifi the best time, but only because he was the last to lap a fast drying track. The asphalt temperature in qualifying was twenty degrees lower than the day before – and the balance of power has changed, and Sunday’s forecast promises a third option – warm weather with no precipitation.

At the start of qualifying the asphalt was completely dry, but the sun disappeared and clouds surrounded the track again. Aston Martin managed to restore Sebastian Vettel’s car, replacing the bottom, gearbox and nose cone, damaged in the accident in the third training session.

In the first session the riders rushed to the track to do a quick lap for possible rain. Ferrari decided to miss the first five minutes, dodge traffic, and then joined the fight as well.

The best time was shown by Lewis Hamilton – 1:18.374. Gasly had lost time because he went off the track in Turn 5 – and he got no further, as did Tsunoda, Albon, Vettel and Latifi.

second session many started on a rolled-in set of soft tires and left new sets for the next try.

Hamilton blocked the rubber on braking and returned to the pits. Perez was given time to go off the track in Turn 5.

In the first attempt, Verstappen set the best time, set a lap of 1:17.703, Alonso came closest to him and lost only two tenths.

On the second attempt, Verstappen did not improve and Leclerc set the second time back 0.065 seconds. Perez told the engineer that Magnussen interfered with him – and did not go to the final along with Zhou, Magnussen, Stroll and Schumacher.

In the final Verstappen, Leclerc, Alonso and Sainz drove with fresh Soft tires while the others made their first attempt with the tires rolled up.

In the first attempt Sainz showed the best time after a lap of 1:17.505. Verstappen made a mistake in the second corner and only finished seventh.

On his second attempt, Verstappen complained of a loss of power, but kept going. Hamilton withdrew from the attempt due to problems with DRS. Sainz drove even faster, but George Russell showed the best time – 1:17.377.

George Russell won qualifying in Budapest, taking the first pole position of his career – and the first for Mercedes this season.

Russell and Sainz share the front row of the grid, Leclerc and Norris start from the second, Ocon and Alonso from the third. Verstappen only starts in 10th place.

Qualification Results