Formula 1 championship leader Lewis Hamilton snatched pole in the closing stages of a thrilling rain-hit qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Valtteri Bottas finished second.
The Mercedes front row lock-out was secured in the session’s final moments. Rain affected the entire qualifying hour, but track conditions were at their worst at the start of Q3.
The rain eased towards the end of the session, allowing drivers to improve albeit still on the full wet tyre.
Bottas snatched provisional pole from Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, beating his compatriot by nearly three tenths. Hamilton improved further, posting a 1m35.658s to grab pole position by 0.259s.
Mercedes’ late session pace was in contrast to Sebastian Vettel, who struggled in Q3. While the Mercedes pair and Raikkonen pitted for fresh wet tyres ahead of the final lap of the session, Vettel continued on his used rubber.
Vettel’s last lap was his best of the Q3 session, but he could only improve to fourth – a slender 0.024s behind Raikkonen.
In both Q1 and Q2, Vettel topped the sessions. In Q2, he was the only driver to opt to start the session on the intermediate tyre, which proved to be the right decision as track conditions deteriorated throughout the 15-minute segment.
Carlos Sainz Jr, who starred to finish second in Q2, ended Q3 in fifth place ahead of Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly.
Gasly outqualified both drivers from the sister team Red Bull. Max Verstappen aborted his final lap in Q3 and finished in seventh as a result.
Daniel Ricciardo was eliminated in Q2 and will start from 12th on the grid. Narrowly progressing through Q1 after being the only driver to use a soft tyre rather than the faster ultrasoft as the track dried, he then failed to post a competitive time at the start of Q2 after Williams’ Lance Stroll spun in front of him and caused a yellow flag.
Fernando Alonso in 11th, Nico Hulkenberg in 12th and Marcus Ericsson in 14th all exited qualifying at the Q2 stage after mirroring Ricciardo in failing to post a competitive first lap in the session.
Brendon Hartley was one of the beneficiaries, ensuring that two Toro Rosso’s progressed to Q3. The Kiwi qualified in eighth, ahead of the Haas pairing of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean in ninth and 10th.
Both Force Indias were eliminated in the opening stage of qualifying. Esteban Ocon suffered brake problems en route to 18th while Sergio Perez took too much performance out of his tyres early on and ended up 19th.
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