Lewis took his 75th pole position for the Mercedes F1 Team with an unbelievable lap on the Hungaroring. Valtteri did an impressive job to complete the lockout and will start tomorrow’s race in P2.
Both drivers will start tomorrow’s race on the medium compound tire, unlike the cars behind them.
Lewis took his eighth pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix, breaking the record he shared with Michael Schumacher for most pole positions at this Grand Prix.
Today was the 214th pole position for Mercedes-Benz Power in Formula 1 and surpassed Renault as an engine supplier with the second most poles.
Lewis Hamilton: It was a great qualifying lap, the last one. Everyone worked together incredibly this weekend, including Valtteri. We’re just trying to bring the car forward, we’re constantly developing and the guys in the factory worked at full speed and left no stone unturned. It was great to see everyone come together, band together and push forward and I appreciate the great support that I have here.
The soft tire is worth about five meters on the first corner and it’s a long way to the first corner, so tomorrow is going to be exciting – it’s surprising to see all the guys behind us on the soft tire. It’s definitely great to have a front row lockout for our team, it’s the first in a long time and I’m so grateful to everyone at the factory.
Valtteri Bottas: We saw some good progress in performance at Silverstone and it seems to be going on here in Budapest which is great to see. The conditions here with the heat are pretty unique and we’ve done well so far. As a team we are well positioned for tomorrow’s race with the medium tire – Red Bull will have an advantage at the start on the soft, but we will be able to drive longer in the first stint, so we are well positioned to be an interesting race. We have to have a lot of concentration at the beginning, that’s for sure.
I’m a bit disappointed with my first run in Q3, Lewis had a great lap and I didn’t feel as safe with the car as I did at other times of the weekend. I lost a bit of rhythm in Q2 with the medium tire and it wasn’t easy to switch back to the softs and attack fully in Q3. But my lap was decent and enough for P2 so I’m relatively happy.
Andrew Shovlin: It’s great to have another front row lockout. We didn’t really know what to expect here. We thought we were going to fight for pole, but the lead is a surprise. We wanted to get the cars on medium tires for the start, which was a bit closer than we would have liked in Q2 with Valtteri, but the risk paid off. Once the race is over, the medium should be the better tire, but its weakness will always be the start and grip in the first corners – that has to be a focus for tomorrow. The race is going to be very tough on the tires and that could open up strategic options, but the car had good pace in hot conditions on Friday so hopefully we can take that into the race.
Take a look at our Saturday gallery from the Hungaroring here.
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