CHARLES LECLERC TAKES POLE POSITION IN HUNGARY
When no one expected it, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc improved himself enough to spoil Mclaren’s 1-2 party and conquer pole position. The top 4 is divided only by less than a tenth, as Oscar Piastri only was 26 milliseconds behind the poleman, Norris 41, and Russell 53. But let’s have a look at how this qualy session has gone for the rest of the field. Amazing job for the Aston Martin drivers as well, with Alonso getting P5, and Stroll behind him in P6.
Q1: the report of the first half of qualifying
Q1 has seen once again Redbull’s second driver Yuki Tsunoda being the unfortunate protagonist, as the Japanese driver once again struggled to find his pace and got knocked out, finishing in P16, joining Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Albon in the bottom 5. The surprise of the first part of today’s qualifying has surely been Franco Colapinto, the Argentinian managed to get through Q2 and beat his teammate Gasly, who only got P17
Q2: surprises and disappointments
Every time… This are the best words to summarize Q2 for Ferrari’s new driver Lewis Hamilton; the Brit, who has got a total of 9 pole positions at Budapest, reported some issues finding his pace with the car, and his last push lap wasn’t good enough to bring a Q3 result for the Scuderia. He finished the session in P13, but then got promoted to P12, as Kimi Antonelli got his laptime deleted due to track limits and will start the race in P15 tomorrow.
Among the protagonists, it is once again the rookie from Brazil Gabriel Bortoleto, who seems to be in perfect shape and manages to get through to Q3 for the second time in a row. Will he bring home another points finish after his P9 in Belgium? One thing is sure, Gabi is absolutely between the drivers who are performing the best, and after a tough start of the season, he has found his way, and is surprising everyone.
Once again, rookie driver Kimi Antonelli has struggled to find the limits of his car, since Mercedes decided to bring a new suspension update, he has shown a lot of problems finding the right pace, and in fact he reported a lot of oversteering. Seeing the driver’s problems ahead of the weekend, Mercedes tried to re-install in Antonelli’s car the old suspension, but it didn’t work quite well around Hungary. Will it be different after the summer break?
Q3: what happened in the last part of qualifying
Until the last minutes it seemed to be clear that one of the Mclarens was going to take pole position, as the rest of the field were way too far from them, but all of a sudden, everything changed: Leclerc gained more than a second on his last attempt and that lap was good enough to secure him pole position. So, the question is, why didn’t the Mclarens improve on their final attempt?
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of everyone, but on their last push lap they both reported a gust of wind, which made them loose time. Another pair of drivers to surprise us were the Aston Martins; the Silverstone-based team got an amazing P5 and P6, achieving their best result of the year, and they are on for some points tomorrow.
Not the best result for Max verstappen, the current world champion only got P8 behind Bortoleto, and only finished ahead of the Racing Bulls pairing, which brought both cars to Q3. Will the Dutch driver manage to bring home some points in tomorrow’s race?
Formula 1 will bring us more action tomorrow at 15:00 CET, and is promising a really exciting race. Join us for the Hungarian Grand Prix!
Share this content:
