Saturday at the
Hungarian Grand Prix saw
Max Verstappen claim a maiden pole position,
Charles Leclerc was in the wall again and
Sergio Perez accused
Daniel Ricciardo of a crazy move.
Qualifying
It was looking pretty good for
Mercedes and
Lewis Hamilton as the Brit topped the charts in FP3 but there was always the looming presence of
Max Verstappen. With the Dutchman in such imperious form, many believe he is the man to beat despite being third in the Drivers' Championship. It seemed to be a shootout between Hamilton and Verstappen.
After topping one qualifying session each it was Verstappen who pipped the Brit's teammate, in fact, to pole with
Valtteri Bottas joining Max on the front row. Hamilton had to settle for third.
The
Ferrari pair were fourth and fifth but it doesn't tell the full story of
Charles Leclerc's qualifying session. After setting a time fast enough in Q1 Leclerc spun at the final corner crashing his rear wing into the barriers leaving his team with a race against time to repair the car. Luckily for the Monegasque, they did and he'll start fourth.
It wasn't a good qualifying session for Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian exited in Q1 and will start the race 18th on the grid, only ahead of Lance Stroll and Robert Kubica. To compound his misery he had a bizarre incident with
Sergio Perez which the Mexican described as
"crazy".
Ricciardo tried overtaking Perez at the final corner with Perez responding by standing his ground and retaking the place. It ended up working against both drivers as neither were able to put in a lap worthy of getting to Q2 and exited at the opening segment of qualifying.
It didn't help that Ricciardo's teammate qualified 11th. A missed opportunity for Ricciardo?
Delight for Red Bull as Max takes maiden pole
Better late than never. Max Verstappen has finally claimed his first pole position. After Honda apologised in Germany after they felt it could've been P1 from the start he finally takes the pole position award in Hungary.
After taking the first qualifying session it looked like a shootout between him and Hamilton, but an early lap in Q3 set the standard and he built on it with his last lap, setting a time of 1:14.572. It would not be beaten. Jubilant scenes in the cockpit and the garage ensued and it was just as lively in the stands as the masses of Dutch fans celebrated.
Williams have (finally) turned up the pace George Russell may have failed to make it out of Q1 again but he gave it a good go eventually qualifying 16th. The Brit was as high as ninth at one point way ahead of his teammate and he benefitted from the penalty to
Antonio Giovinazzi bumping him up to 15th on the starting grid for tomorrow's race.
After his impressive display, Russell was in fine mood and believes the upgrades the
Williams team brought in Germany are finally showing some results and the rookie went on to say
"since coming here we've really turned up the pace". The Brit is still waiting for his first F1 point but this will have done wonders for him!
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