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Russell stuns Ferrari by taking pole position after Red Bull nightmare

Russell stuns Ferrari by taking pole position after Red Bull nightmare

30-07-2022 15:59 Last update: 16:19
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Matt Gretton

Editor-in-Chief

George Russell has qualified on pole position for the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix. He stunned Ferrari with a brilliant lap to take away a Ferrari front-row lockout. Red Bull had a nightmare finish and will start the race from P10 and P11. Carlos Sainz starts ahead of Charles Leclerc. 

Ferrari were quiet during much of the session but did enough to move through the Q3 whilst saving some fresh tyres for the most important 12 minutes of the day. Leclerc and Sainz were two of four drivers to have two new sets of softs, with Verstappen being another. On the first run of Q2, Sainz was the lead Ferrari driver with Russell splitting the two Italian cars. Verstappen had a lock-up and ran wide giving him P8 and a lot of work to do in the final run. 

Verstappen reported power issues on his warm-up lap and therefore couldn't improve. It looked like Ferrari had the front-row locked out, until Russell went purple to reclaim his Mr Saturday nickname. 

During the week, weather predictions for the qualifying session suggested rain would fall. But it turns out all the rain fell before and during the third free practice session and given the temperatures, the circuit was dry for the start of the 60-minute session. The recent rain created a green track with powerful evolution. 

Red Bull Racing had a nightmare of a qualifying session. It looked like Verstappen would be left alone to fight for victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez failed to make it through to Q3. But the Dutchman had a power issue on the second run in Q3 and couldn't get further than P10. 

Q1 

With the darkest of black clouds looming over the pitlane, the track became very busy almost as soon as the green flag dropped. At the top, Verstappen controlled things with Mercedes knocking on the door once they get their tyres up to temperature. Ferrari also had to build up to a quicker lap time. 

With five minutes remaining, Zhou, Schumacher, Magnussen, Vettel and FP3 topper Latifi sat in the danger zone. But strong track evolution concerned those hanging just above the danger zone. Latifi looked like he was going to pull another lap out of the bag by going purple in sector one but the Williams driver made a mistake in the final corner knocking him out of the session along with Albon. 

After a crash in FP3 that required some repair work, Vettel was unable to escape the drop zone. Those three drivers were joined by both AlphaTauri cars. 

Out - P16 Tsunoda, P17 Albon, P18 Vettel, P19 Gasly, P20 Latifi

Q2

Lando Norris raised eyebrows at the start of qualifying by going six-tenths faster than Ferrari but the Brit was running with fresh tyres. Hamilton made a mistake at the first corner and locked the front right. With track evolution again playing its part and the mistake included, the seven-time World Champion sat in the drop zone along with Sergio Perez who breached track limits. They were joined by the Haas drivers and Lance Stroll. 

Perez escaped because the stewards reinstated his lap but failed to improve and dropped back into the drop zone for the chequered flag. Red Bull will only have one driver at the front of the grid for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Mexican felt like he was blocked by Kevin Magnussen. Hamilton improved significantly with a fresh set of tyres. Zhou replaced Hamilton in the drop zone. 

Out - P11 Perez, P12 Zhou, P13 Magnussen, P14 Stroll, P15 Schumacher