Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix as Mercedes secured a front-row lockout.
Valtteri Bottas was over 0.3s behind his Mercedes team-mate, while championship leader Max Verstappen was third fastest for Red Bull.
Q1
Aiming to bounce back from his British Grand Prix crash, Verstappen ended the opening session fastest for Red Bull, 0.2s ahead of chief rival Hamilton, who had topped free practice on Saturday morning.
Bottas was 0.15s behind his Mercedes team-mate in third, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz fourth. Pierre Gasly was fifth for Alpha Tauri ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Daniel Ricciardo just made it into Q2, the McLaren driver ending up 14th fastest, just 0.1s ahead Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi. It was another difficult qualifying for Yuki Tsunoda, who was eliminated after setting the 16th best time for Alpha Tauri.
George Russell was eliminated in Q1 for the first time this season after ending the session in 17th, Nicholas Latifi getting within 0.1s of his Williams team-mate in 18th. Nikita Mazepin was the last of the runners in 19th for Haas.
Mick Schumacher was cleared to take part in qualifying after a heavy crash in FP3 but, despite the best efforts of his mechanics, his car was not repaired in time for him to make it onto track.
Eliminated:
Yuki Tsunoda Alpha Tauri
George Russell Williams
Nicholas Latifi Williams
Nikita Mazepin Haas
Mick Schumacher Haas
Q2
Hamilton set the pace ahead of Verstappen at the beginning of Q2, before a big crash for Sainz at the final corner brought out the red flags and ended the Spaniard’s day early.
The session resumed with just two minutes remaining, with Verstappen setting a blistering pace on medium compound tyres to snatch top spot. McLaren’s Lando Norris and Gasly also pipped Hamilton with soft tyre runs, as did Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. Hamilton ended up in 6th, despite also using the soft tyres on his final run.
Sebastian Vettel made it into Q3 with the 10th best time for Aston Martin, but Ricciardo missed out by less than 0.1s in 11th.
Stroll was 12th, and was joined in being eliminated by Alfa Romeo duo Kimi Raikkonen and Giovinazzi – comfortably the slowest two in the session – and Sainz.
Eliminated:
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren
Lance Stroll Aston Martin
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo
Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo
Carlos Sainz Ferrari
Q3
Verstappen was first to record a time in Q3, but he was soon pipped by his Mercedes rivals. Bottas lapped 0.2s faster, before team-mate Hamilton found over 0.3s to take provisional pole.
With tensions still simmering from Silverstone, Mercedes beat Red Bull out of the pitlane ahead of their second runs, with Hamilton completing a slow outlap and crossed the line to start his timed effort with seconds remaining. Bottas and Verstappen also managed to beat the chequered flag to start their laps, but Perez ran out of time.
Hamilton and Bottas did not improve on their first efforts but, despite Verstappen improving his time, the Mercedes duo remaining in first and second ahead of the Dutchman.
Perez held on to fourth, despite not getting his second timed run in, with Gasly and Norris just behind in fifth and sixth.
Charles Leclerc was seventh for Ferrari ahead of Esteban Ocon, who pipped Alpine team-mate Alonso to eighth, and Vettel.
Provisional grid:
- Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
- Valtteri Bottas Mercedes
- Max Verstappen Red Bull
- Sergio Perez Red Bull
- Pierre Gasly Alpha Tauri
- Lando Norris McLaren
- Charles Leclerc Ferrari
- Esteban Ocon Alpine
- Fernando Alonso Alpine
- Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin
Featured image credit: @f1 official twitter
