BUDAPEST, Hungary- After watching his Mercedes teammate dominate the first two qualifying sessions, a surprised Lewis Hamilton grabbed a last second time of 1:19:388, to take pole just in front of Sebastian Vettel for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Hungary at the Hungaroring. Romain Grosjean, who has been very quick at this track,
took third.
Hamilton was
not so certain at first that he won pole.
“It makes it very tough and I was very surprised when I got the pole because I thought Sebastian
would get it because he was very fast.” Stated Hamilton.
At the beginning of qualifying, the weather was hot, with temperatures in the 90’s, which were certainly going to wear the tires out more than normal. However, both Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were dominate as the latter turned in the best times of the first two sessions of 1:20:350 and 1:19:779, respectively.Paul Di resta was the big surprise of the opening session, as the Scot finished a disappointing 18th on the grid. In the following session, Adrian Sutil, Jenson Button, Nico Hulkenberg and Jean Eric Vergne failed to advance to the last
session.
The action really began to get going in the final session with only four minutes to go, and after many thought that Vettel would win another pole. But Hamilton came across the line with another quick time, and with Rosberg becoming the last driver to finish the session, managed to fail this time to match Hamilton’s best time, and ended up finishing in fourth. Hamilton went on to take his third pole in a
row and his fourth of the season.
As for the rest of the grid, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, who are in the title contention for the world championship, finished fifth and sixth, respectively, while Felipe Massa took seventh. Daniel Riccardo wanted to conserve his tires
for tomorrow and finished in eighth, while Sergio Perez finished ninth in his McLaren.
Mark Webber had his KERS system fail and could not get his Red Bull out at all
onto the track and ended up tenth.
Hamilton was certainly worn out from his effort but knew that Vettel will be tough on race
day.
“The guys are doing a phenomenal job and the track is very hard to follow. But it will be
hard here.trying to keep with Vettel.” Concluded Hamilton.
Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.