Hamilton dominates in Hungary qualifying

Jul 26, 2015
5 min read

In the heat of Budapest it was qualifying day for the Hungarian Grand Prix, and once again one of the highest track temperatures of the season and that includes Malaysia. The heat was certainly on with the air temperatures in the mid thirties with a threat of thunderstorms later in the afternoon.

It has looked like Lewis Hamilton has the advantage this weekend, several tenths faster than the rest of the field in a couple of session, with Red Bull and Ferrari looking to pick up the pieces.

Nico Rosberg was the first driver on the circuit for Mercedes, going out on the white rimmed tyres, quickly followed by Lewis Hamilton. Being the first in the order it was up to Rosberg to set the benchmark time of a 1:25.2, Hamilton going a second quicker after the German went off the road a couple of time. Verstappen was only four tenths behind Rosberg after his poor lap and his team mate Sainz went slower by four tenths. Bottas went third a second down on Hamilton, shadowed by Hulkenberg. Ricciardo took over the first place after his first run, with Vettel slotting into second, six tenths slower than Hamilton. The second Ferrari was in sixth, and half a second down on his team mate.

Rosberg took another lap, but had a lot of traffic and could only match Vettel six tenths away from the leading pace. He said over the radio that there was something wrong with the balance, and that he had too much understeer. Button went 4th in the McLaren with 10 minutes remaining, with Kvyat reclaiming that position, both around eight tenths away from the Mercedes. Hamilton went faster again on his second lap, with Ricciardo also improving to second. Both Lotus drivers looked to have a poor balance in the car with both drivers going off the circuit.

Bottas went out on the soft tyre with seven minutes remaining. Both McLaren cars had already done the same and were lying in 5th and 7th. Button later improved to 3rd, with Nasr only getting up to 13th one the same. The majority of the field did the same thing a little later, including Mercedes. Bottas did a 1:23.6 on the soft tyre, setting the new benchmark time. Grosjean who was outside the 107% time went 4th, with Hulkenberg going 2nd. Kvyat went fastest with Verstappen third. Rosberg went fastest on a 1:22.9 with Raikkonen in 3rd.

Sainz couldn’t match his team mate for 11th, with Massa’s Williams only in 7th. Alonso and the two Saubers were the cars in the bottom five, along with the Manors. Sainz was also on the cusp in 14th, along with Perez. Alonso went 14th fastest and ahead of Sainz on his last run dropping Button back. Ericsson only went 17th at the end of the session, with Nasr 18th. Hamilton went faster again, but lost three tenths overall. Button could only go 16th, which meant he was out of qualifying.

Those out at the end of Q1 were Button, Ericsson, Nasr, Merhi and Stevens.

It was a slow start to the second session, with little action on the track. Vettel and Bottas were first to go out on the track with 12 minutes of the session remaining, followed by Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. The German had a neat lap to set the benchmark time of a 1:23.1. Bottas was four tenths slower, with Raikkonen three tenths slower than his team mate.

Fernando Alonso stopped in the entrance to the pitlane, just before the final corner bringing out the red flag – just as Lewis Hamilton started his fast lap. Alonso was trying to push his own car back into the pitlane, with the marshalls coming out to help him.

The car got back to the pitlane thanks to the efforts of its star driver who was also waving to the crowd in the process. The session restarted, the Mercedes heading back out on the circuit. Lewis had a slight lock up into turn 2, although he was still slightly faster overall. He would be half a second up at the second sector, with him ended the lap on a 1:22.2.

Kvyat went fifth, and was over a second down. His team mate Riccairdo split the Ferrari’s in 4th before going straight on at the first corner. Bottas with the new front wing on the Williams went 6th, with Massa in 8th. Verstappen went 9th in the Toro Rosso, with Grosjean making it into the top ten. Sainz was the next over the line and only stayed 12th, with Maldonado only staying 13th. Sergio Perez could only make it 13th, dropping Maldonado back to 14th.

So those who were out in the second part of qualifying included Hulkenberg, Sainz, Perez, Maldonado and Alonso.

With the Mercedes drivers going out early in the final part of qualifying, they both went on used soft tyres, so unlikely to be the pole lap. Rosberg set a 1:22.7, although behind Hamilton was going faster and ended the lap three tenths faster. Early in the session both Ferrari drivers were out on new tyre, although Vettel was half a second down with Raikkonen a tenth further back. Bottas went 5th, with Grosjean 6th although it was a slow lap on old tyres in the Lotus.

Kvyat went 6th, but Ricciardo had a great lap to go 4th fastest with the middle sector the star part of the lap. Massa went eighth fastest again on used tyres and would have a short amount to time in order to get back to the pits.

Lewis Hamilton went out behind Rosberg for this race, although it was Romain Grosjean who would emerge at the back of the train. Raikkonen was backing up Hamilton on the outlap, while Rosberg had a clear gap at the front. Rosberg matched the best first sector, but Hamilton was a tenth quicker. Rosberg locked up into the penultimate corner and went on to only take the second place. Vettel did a 22.3 for 3rd with Hamilton setting another faster lap half a second clear of Rosberg. Ricciardo went forth and kept the two Ferraris apart.

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m22.020s

2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0.575s

3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 0.719s

4 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 0.754s

5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1.000s

6 Valtteri Bottas Williams/Mercedes 1.202s

7 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull/Renault 1.312s

8 Felipe Massa Williams/Mercedes 1.517s

9 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso/Renault 1.659s

10 Romain Grosjean Lotus/Mercedes 2.161s

11 Nico Hulkenberg Force India/Mercedes 1.806s

12 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso/Renault 1.849s