Stunning lap gives Hamilton his 101st career pole

Budapest, 31 July 2021: Lewis Hamilton will start tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix from the front of the grid after he grabbed an emphatic 101^st career pole position at the Hungaroring beating Mercedes’ team-mate Valterri Bottas by three tenths of ahead with championship leader Max Verstappen over four tenths of a second off the pace in third in the 11th round of the Formula 1 World Championship qualifying session here on Saturday.

At the beginning of the hour-long qualifying session the expected frontrunners were quickly into action, with Bottas taking an early P1 with a lap of 1:16.610. However, he was soon demoted by Hamilton who stole top spot thanks to a lap of 1:16.424. Verstappen wasn’t far behind the Mercedes pair on track, though, and the Red Bull driver jumped ahead of both with his opening push lap of 1:16.214.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Pérez looked to be struggling, however.  The Mexican opened with a lap of 1:17.300 but as better laps flooded in he soon dropped to ninth place. He opted for a second attempt but only improved to 1:17.233 and still held ninth ahead of the final runs.

Despite the risk to Pérez, Red Bull chose to keep both drivers in the garage for the final runs. And it proved the right choice as there were few improvements in the final moments and Verstappen held top sport as Pérez progressed in P11.

Eliminated at the end of the first session were AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda in P16, Williams’ George Russell and Nicholas Latifi in P17 and P18 respectively and Haas’ Nikita Mazepin in P19. The Russian’s team-mate, Mick Schumacher, didn’t make it out on track in the session with Haas unable to repair his car following an earlier crash in FP3.

At the start of Q2, Hamilton set the pace on medium tyres with a lap of 1:16.553. Verstappen also opted for mediums and slotted into P2 with a time of 1:16.769. However, the Dutchman was pushed to P3 as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, on soft tyres, set an impressive time of 1:16.725.

The session was then halted as Carlos Sainz lost control of his Ferrari in the final corner and slid into the barriers. The red flags were quickly displayed.

After a short delay the action resumed and both Red Bulls mopved to soft tyres. Verstappen jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:15.650 while Pérez went through to Q3 in P4 thanks to an improved time of 1:16.443. Both Mercedes drivers opted to back out of their final laps and after progressing in P6 and P8 will start on medium tyres.

Eliminated at the end of Q2 were 11^th placed Danile Ricciardo of McLaren, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi and the unfortunate Sainz.

In the first runs of Q3, Hamilton laid down a tough marker with an opening time of 1:15.419. Bottas followed on 1:15.734 and Max sat in P3 with an opening time of 1:15.984. Verstappen then improved on his final run but the  tenth of a second he found was not enough to trouble Hamilton and the Mercedes driver claimed pole position with Bottas second and Vrestappen third.

Pérez claimed fourth place on the grid with his opening run time, while Pierre Gasly put in an impressive lap of 1:16.483 to take fifth place on the grid ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris. Leclerc will start seventh for Ferrari with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Fernando in eighth and ninth. The final top 10 position went to Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel.

2021 FIA Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.419 6 209.119
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:15.734 0.315 0.418 6 208.249
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:15.840 0.421 0.558 6 207.958
4 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:16.421 1.002 1.329 5 206.377
5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:16.483 1.064 1.411 6 206.210
6 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.489 1.070 1.419 6 206.194
7 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.496 1.077 1.428 6 206.175
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:16.653 1.234 1.636 6 205.753
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:16.715 1.296 1.718 6 205.586
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:16.750 1.331 1.765 3 205.493
11 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.871 1.221 1.614 6 205.169
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:16.893 1.243 1.643 6 205.110
13 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:17.564 1.914 2.530 6 203.336
14 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:17.583 1.933 2.555 3 203.286
  – Carlos Sainz Ferrari 2
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 1:17.919 1.705 2.237 8 202.410
17 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:17.944 1.730 2.270 8 202.345
18 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:18.036 1.822 2.391 8 202.106
19 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:18.922 2.708 3.553 9 199.837