Lewis Hamilton has qualified on pole for the
Hungarian Grand Prix tomorrow. Vettel finished top of the timesheets in every session in qualifying but the final session. Valtteri Bottas comes in 2nd fastest giving Mercedes a 1-2! Daniel Ricciardo will start from 12th tomorrow following an early exit for the Red Bull driver on a track that should suit the cars characteristics. Sebastian Vettel finished 4th behind team-mate Raikkonen. More to follow
It was a qualifying session which had it all! The rain and changing track conditions made it a challenge for all drivers on the circuit. The Ultras, intermediates and wets all played their part across all 3 chapters this afternoon.
All day, it was looking like Sebastian Vettel was going to finish on pole, but it was his rival Lewis Hamilton that stole his thunder in wet conditions. Hamilton was backed up by his team-mate Valtteri Bottas to give the German side another 1-2. A surprising outcome.
Top 3
1st Hamilton 1:35.658
2nd Bottas 1:35.918
3rd Raikkonen 1:36.186
Q1 Eliminated
16th Vandoorne, 17th Leclerc, 18th Ocon, 19th Perez, 20th Sirotkin
It was the first session which started the drama! A dark cloud loomed over the top of the track with teams unsure when it would open up. Intermediates were the tyres in use for the first part of the session, but drivers were called into the pits for a race style pitstop to change onto the ultra soft compound.
Daniel Ricciardo was last to come into the pits and had to perform under pressure to avoid a Q1 exit. He managed to escape in the closing stages of the session.
Q2 Eliminated
11th Alonso, 12th Ricciardo, 13th Hulkenberg, 14th Ericsson, 15th Stroll
With the rain lashing down, the blue marked compound was utilised by all teams. Sebastian Vettel posted an early hot lap so he could sit comfortably in the garage for the remaining part of the session.
Ricciardo was struggling again and the track conditions were getting worse by the second. This time he couldn't pull it out of the bag and was eliminated early. His team-mate Max Verstappen made it through.
Adding to the drama, both Toro Rosso cars made it into the top 10. The track suits their car, but hardly anyone predicted that this would happen.
Q3
The track was starting to dry out very slowly, but the spray was still coming out from underneath the cars. The lead continued to change hands throughout the session, but it was Lewis Hamilton that produced the lap he needed to finish ahead of the Ferrari's.