Hungarian GP : Lewis Hamilton claims pole ahead of Bottas and Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton takes Pole position for 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen.

This will be eighth Pole at Hungaroring and 101st career pole for seven-time World Champion, who will be going for record breaking 9th win tomorrow.

The crowd at the stands were audibly mixed during Hamilton’s interview, boos interspersed with cheers. Although he appeared initially taken aback, Hamilton did have the perfect response there – as if he needs any more motivation in what is turning into a fight for the ages.

“Amazing qualifying lap, amazing team work from everyone Valtteri included to try and push the car forward. I don’t mind the booing, it just fuels me.”– says Lewis after securing his 101th career Pole in Formula 1.

Valtteri Bottas makes it front-row lock out for Mercedes on a track they have been dominant force in the Turbo Hybrid era, The Fin felt Ok with his performance and he is looking forward to battle with Red Bull’s in tomorrow’s race.

“In Q2 I lost the rhythm slightly when we had to use the mediums tyres so it wasn’t easy, and I had a small lock up [in Q3]. Tomorrow will be exciting, the Red Bulls are on the soft tyres and we are on the medium, so all to play for and it’s going to be a good battle. I’m looking forward to it”.

The Red Bull has no answer to Mercedes pace at Hungaroring all weekend long and the championship leader Verstappen feels P3 is the maximum they could have achieved today. Dutchman feels starting race on red-softs will give opportunity to overtake Mercedes at the early phases of race. This will be Max’s 20th top-3 race starts in a row in Formula 1.

“The whole weekend we’ve been a bit behind and it showed in qualifying. We’re still there in P3 and we’ll see what we can do but yeah, not what I want. The grip is higher on there [soft] tyres so it will give us an opportunity off the line.“

Perez did hold onto fourth after failing to cross the starting line before chequered flag in the final run, Gasly improved to a fantastic fifth ahead of Norris in P6. Leclerc pipped Ocon for P7, Alonso and Vettel rounding out the top 10.

Q2- Carlos Sainz causes Red Flag, Ricciardo drops out

The track temperatures are soaring high (62C) at the start of Q2, making life of drivers life harder and Medium tyres will be better option in the hot condition. Mercedes and Red Bull have sent their drivers out on the mediums, including Perez 

Carlos Sainz hits the barriers at T14 and causes red flag, the Spaniard was on a hot lap before crashing. So that means he is set for P15 on the grid if no penalties coming in his way.

Red Bull’s changed their strategy to send their drivers on soft tyres for final flying laps in Q2, which will make tomorrow’s race more interesting. Both Mercedes on Mediums, while Red Bull’s on Red Softs.

Ricciardo struggled as it turned out, over half a second back on his team mate Norris’s P2 time and a tenth off Q3. Not ideal for the Aussie, but at least he has free tyre choice

Eliminated in Q2: Ricciardo, Stroll, Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Sainz. 

Q1-George Russell failed to progress to Q2 for the first time in 2021

Mr. Saturday, George Russell failed to progress out of Q1 for the first time in the 2021 season. The Williams is susceptible to higher temperatures, and hasn’t looked on song all weekend but Russell’s lap was marred by bouts of understeer and he definitely left a few tenths out there today.

Mick Schumacher is the only driver failed to set a timed lap in the Q1, The German doesn’t take part in qualifying after crashing in FP3.

Eliminated in Q1: Tsunoda, Russell, Latifi, Mazepin, Schumacher