Hungarian Grand Prix 2011 – Qualifying Report

Sebastian Vettel took his eighth pole position of the year during the qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The championship leader was able to rise to the challenge of McLaren pairing Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, who took second and third places on the grid, to continue his Red Bull team's perfect streak of poles during the 2011 season.

Q1

Due to the twisty nature of the Hungaroring circuit, Pirelli opted to bring their two softest tyre compounds for use this weekend – softs and super-softs. Vettel led the early going with a lap of 1'22.4 on the former variety, but Hamilton didn't take long to better that effort by eight tenths of a second. Mark Webber appeared somewhat at sea with a time 1.3 adrift of the Brit, only a tenth clear of the Mercedes drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. This meant the Australian was also considerably slower than Button, as well as the Ferrari pairing of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was in fact the only man capable of dethroning Hamilton in Q1, substantially improving his first time to beat his arch-rival by half-a-tenth. None of the Red Bull, McLaren or Ferrari drivers felt the need to use the super-softs during Q1, but that certainly wasn't the case for the rest, even if it turned out that the Mercedes drivers were also safe. The Williams and Toro Rossos looked like being the most vulnerable teams among the midfield, and the fight to avoid an early elimination was between Pastor Maldonado and Sebastien Buemi. After a last-ditch effort from the Venezuelan, it was the Swiss driver who joined the regular Lotuses, Virgins and Hispanias in occupying the rear seven grid slots, though Buemi will in fact begin from 23^rd place thanks to his grid penalty picked up from ending Nick Heidfeld's race last time out at the Nurburgring.

Eliminated – Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Timo Glock (Virgin), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania), Daniel Ricciardo (Hispania), Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin)

Q2

Vettel was once again the first major contender out of the traps, setting an early benchmark of 1'21.1 on the super-softs. Hamilton was the only man to eschew the softer rubber in favour of another run on softs, and was able to make it work – his time was just a hundredth of a second slower than that of Vettel, despite the super-softs' alleged eight tenths per lap advantage. Rosberg impressed as well, getting his Mercedes within a tenth of compatriot Vettel, whilst Webber beat his teammate by two-tenths to take the top spot of the timesheets. His reign was cut short by Button however, who was three tenths quicker, who in turn was soon beaten by three tenths by Alonso. As for the midfield, two places were up for grabs in Q3 behind the top eight. These went to the Force India of Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez for Sauber, both of whom beat their teammates Paul Di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi by healthy margins. The Renaults of Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld were simply not quick enough, while the Williams drivers Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello as well as Jaime Alguersauri in the other Toro Rosso weren't able to make the cut either.

Eliminated – Paul Di Resta (Force India), Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber), Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Jaime Alguersauri (Toro Rosso), Pastor Maldonado (Williams)

Q3

As ever, Q3 was a session of two halves, with the only participants of the first half being the Red Bulls, McLarens and Ferraris. Alonso set the standard with a 1'20.4, but Hamilton bettered his former teammate's time by four tenths not long after. Button was a tenth shy of Alonso initially, with Massa a further tenth behind, while Vettel's first time slotted himself between his fellow champions Hamilton and Alonso. Surprisingly, the best Webber could manage was sixth, a full eight tenths slower than Hamilton, leaving the German Grand Prix winner in provisional pole at the end of the unofficial 'Q3a'. Everyone except Perez, who instead opted to save tyres, took to the track for 'Q3b', with the top six all seemingly in contention for honours. Alonso looked like snatching pole away from Hamilton, but a mistake in the last sector meant he failed to improve his time. Vettel then went two-tenths quicker than Hamilton, putting the onus on the Brit to reclaim pole position. However, like Alonso he failed to improve his time, and despite the best efforts of Button, Webber and Massa, nothing was to deny the German his 23^rd career pole position. Button and Massa did however trump Alonso to move into third and fourth places, though Webber could still do no better than sixth, ahead of Rosberg, Schumacher and Sutil.

Top Ten – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Jenson Button (McLaren), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Sergio Perez (Sauber)

My Prediction

For all of Vettel's disappointing form at his home race last time out, I have a sneaking suspicion that Germany's finest will be back on ominously good form tomorrow:

1. Vettel, 2. Hamilton, 3. Alonso, 4. Button, 5. Massa, 6. Rosberg, 7. Perez, 8. Sutil, 9. Kobayashi, 10. Petrov

The Hungaroring is a notoriously difficult track on which to overtake, and the short length of the main straight will probably render DRS relatively impotent. As such, Hamilton will remain stuck behind Vettel for the duration in similar style to Barcelona, with Alonso picking up two places to complete the podium. Webber will be the victim of an optimistic lunge by a certain M. Schumacher at turn 1, allowing Rosberg into sixth and Perez into seventh ahead of Sutil courtesy of some more expert tyre management from the Mexican; Kobayashi and Petrov will round out the points.

The Hungarian Grand Prix however isn't completely incapable of a surprise result – Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill (very nearly at the wheel of an Arrows in 1997), Button and Kovalainen rank among some of the more unexpected winners of the race over the last 25 years – so anything can still happen. Make sure you check back here tomorrow to read about everything that does.