Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in Hungary qualifying, Stroll third

Lewis Hamilton claimed the 90th pole position of his Formula 1 career as Mercedes dominated proceedings during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Rain threatened throughout the three-part qualifying hour but never materialised, enabling Mercedes to control the session at the top of the timesheets.

Hamilton set a provisional track record on Medium tyres in Q2 as both Mercedes drivers made it through the second session on the yellow-banded compound.

He then lowered the track record twice in Q3 and wound up with a time of 1:13.447, with Valtteri Bottas making it an all-Mercedes front row, 0.107s behind.

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Racing Point impresses again

Racing Point once again demonstrated the pace of its RP20 as the team was second-best for much of the session.

The squad even had sufficient confidence to make it through Q2 on the Medium tyres, giving it a further advantage in race trim.

When it came to Q3 Lance Stroll edged Sergio Perez to take third spot on a circuit where the team failed to make it out of Q1 12 months ago.

But even then Mercedes’ advantage was such that Stroll was 0.930s down on pole man Hamilton.

Ferrari better, Red Bull all at sea

Ferrari had its best result of the season in terms of one-lap pace but given previous problems that was a low benchmark.

Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc will line up alongside each other on the third row of the grid but part of Ferrari’s improved position was thanks to Red Bull’s struggles.

At a circuit where he claimed his maiden pole position Max Verstappen could manage only seventh, with his year-on-year pace worse, amid ongoing strife with the RB16.

Team-mate Alexander Albon qualified only 13th as he in particular had issues through low-speed corners, complaining of “no stability” from the car.

McLaren captured another double Q3 spot, with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. eighth and ninth, while Pierre Gasly made it through to the top 10 but did not run owing to a suspected power unit issue.

Williams secures double Q2 berth

A week after George Russell secured Williams its first Q2 spot since 2018 the team had both cars in the second segment of qualifying at the Hungaroring.

Russell secured an excellent 12th on the grid, just two-tenths away from Q3, while Nicholas Latifi joined his team-mate in the session, finishing 15th.

It marked Latifi’s first Q2 appearance in only his third attempt.

Renault off the pace

While there was joy for Williams at having both cars in Q2 a similar outcome was not so enthusiastically met by Renault.

In a tight midfield battle it lost out, with Daniel Ricciardo 11th after a mistake through the final corner, while Esteban Ocon was only 14th.

Ferrari customers struggle again

For the third event in succession Ferrari’s customer teams again lacked pace in qualifying.

Neither Haas driver nor Alfa Romeo racer made it beyond the first knockout phase.

Kevin Magnussen came closest, 0.047s behind Latifi, with AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat the only interloper among the Ferrari-powered cars at the back.

Romain Grosjean was 18th while Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen were at the back, as Alfa Romeo finished qualifying as the slowest team for the third race in succession.