Nico Rosberg secured a hard fought pole position ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas. Vettel’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo put in a strong performance for fourth and Fernando Alonso out-performed his car it seemed once again for a strong fifth place.
Felipe Massa will be looking to avoid another first lap collision from sixth on the grid ahead of the first McLaren of Jenson Button. Jean-Eric Vergne put in a fabulous performance for 8th on the grid in his Toro Rosso ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and the only man not to set a lap time in Q3 after crashing at turn one, Kevin Magnussen who will start from the pit-lane after a chassis change.
As the lights went green for Q1, the pitlane stayed quiet for only a few seconds before the crescendo of Formula 1 cars streamed out onto the track to set down their benchmark time to make it into the second part of qualifying.
For Lotus, it was another horrible session with Pastor Maldonado grinding to a halt just before the pit-lane exit at the end of his out lap and was unable to set a time in his black and gold machine.
But more bad news was to come for Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. The man battling for the world championship, Hamilton; his qualifying ended in Q1 for the second week in a row after a reported fuel leak set his car alight and he stopped in the pit-lane with flames and smoke billowing from the back of the car. Hamilton will now start the Hungarian GP from the pit-lane. Mercedes have to build a new chassis for the Brit after his old one was burned in the fire.
Possible future Ferrari driver Jules Bianchi caused a stir for the works Ferrari team. A last gasp effort for the Frenchman saw him knock out Raikkonen from Q1. He will start 17th.
Q2 was not as exciting as the first but what we saw, was Sergio Perez’s session ending earlier due to a mechanical failure and star of Q1, Bianchi was unable to build on a strong first session and will start 16th.
Rosberg topped the session unsurprisingly with Vettel in a close second place.
But as the final session began, the rain came down. Drivers went out on slicks but as they made it to turn one on their flying lap, slicks turned out to be a mistake. First Nico Rosberg at the front of the train locked up, and then Magnussen behind wasn’t so lucky to get away with the mistake as he locked up both his front tyres and slammed hard into the barrier at turn one. The session was then red flagged as the marshals retrieved the stricken McLaren.
Once the session resumed it seemed as though the rain had stopped and unlike the first time around, the drivers made it through the first corner.
After Vettel blew team-mate Ricciardo’s time away for provisional pole, Rosberg once again proved that Mercedes were not to be messed with as he went back to the top of the time sheets by .179 of a second.
Just when it seemed as though we were going to get a dry conclusion to Q3 there were reports of the rain coming down once more just to spice up the final flying laps.
After Vettel went to provisional pole right at the end of qualifying, Rosberg once again showed he is more than capable of winning a Formula 1 title and performing under pressure, by smashing his fellow compatriots time by almost 0.5 of a second.
Rosberg on pole, Raikkonen in 17th and Lewis Hamilton in the pit-lane, nicely sets up what is going to be a very thrilling Hungarian GP.
| # | Driver | Team | |
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Williams | |
| 7 | Jenson Button | McLaren | |
| 8 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | |
| 11 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | |
| 12 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | |
| 13 | Sergio Perez | Force India | |
| 14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | |
| 15 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | |
| 16 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | |
| 18 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | |
| 19 | Max Chilton | Marussia | |
| 20 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | |
| 21 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | |
| 22 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus |
