Formula 1

Formula 1: Russell shocks with maiden pole at hectic Hungaroring

Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official Twitter

A year since taking his first points for Williams, George Russell has taken his first pole position, with a suprising final run. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc line up in 2nd and 3rd, while Max Verstappen could only manage 10th.

Despite a very wet P3 and dark clouds, Qualifying was dry.

Q1 – Usual suspects?

The initial runs put the Red Bulls out front, with Russell lurking in 3rd. Sainz and Leclerc were 4th and 10th respectively, a surprise considering their pace through the practice sessions. Both Feraris were able to climb back into the top 3, but they were both trailing Verstappen.

Despite setting a purple sector 1, Latifi finished the session in 20th. Williams’ session was over early as Albon could only make 17th. Alpha Tauri also had a Saturday to forget. Gasly was uncharacteristically off the pace, finishing 19th. Team-mate Tsunoda faced deleted lap times on his way to 16th position. Vettel was also eliminated. After his crash in P3, the Aston was unable to replicate the speed of team-mate Stroll.

Eliminated:

  • 16th Tsunoda
  • 17th Albon
  • 18th Vettel
  • 19th Gasly
  • 20th Latifi

Q2 – Perez struggles, McLaren impress

Verstappen yet again set the inital pace, with Norris outperforming his McLaren to take an early 2nd place. The Ferraris and Mercedes were just behing, but the second Red Bull of Perez stayed in the pits. When he did find his way out on track, his initial lap time was deleted for track limits. However, in bizarre circumstances, Perez’s lap was later reinstated, putting him in 9th.

Perez went out again on used hards, but was unable to improve his time. As Bottas and Ocon jumped up, Perez sunk down and was shockingly out in Q2. He would later highlight Magnussen blocking him, but nothing came of it.

Zhou was 10th for the majority of the session, but lost out as the aforementioned cars moved forwards. Magnussen, Stroll and Schumacher were unable to improve their times as the track appeared to lose performance toward the end of the session.

Eliminated:

  • 11th Perez
  • 12th Zhou
  • 13th Magnussen
  • 14th Stroll
  • 15th Schumacher

Q3 – Verstappen’s shocker, Russell’s stormer

Ferrari came out the gates strong, with Sainz ahead of Leclerc. Although, Russell jumped into 2nd after his first run. Verstappen’s inital run only put him 7th. The Dutchman suffered a huge lock up into turn 2. Alonso impressed with 5th, ahead of the McLaren duo.

However, the drama came at the death of the session.

Verstappen headed back out on track, but reported issues with power. Meaning 7th would be his absolute best result. However, he was leapfrogged by every driver behind him, placing him 10th for tomorrow.

Ferrari set two blinding runs, placing Leclerc 2nd, while Sainz improved his fastest time. But, seemingly out of nowhere and with no purple sectors, Russell snuck to the top, taking his first ever pole position. Norris jumped to 4th, while Ocon just took 5th ahead of Alonso. Hamilton didn’t have an opportunity to improve after he suffered a DRS failure, ahead of strong performances from Bottas and Ricciardo.

Results:

  1. Russell
  2. Sainz
  3. Leclerc
  4. Norris
  5. Ocon
  6. Alonso
  7. Hamilton
  8. Bottas
  9. Ricciardo
  10. Verstappen

 

Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official Twitter

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