Hamilton Heads Mercedes 1-2 In Hungarian GP Qualifying

Calum Gill 15:32 31/07/2021

Lewis Hamilton took his 101st pole position in Formula 1 by heading a Mercedes front-row-lockout in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, the current champion, set a banker lap of a 01:15.419, that was good enough to beat out teammate Valtteri Bottas by 0.315 seconds. Title rival Max Verstappen could only manage third, a further tenth back from Bottas. He and Sergio Perez - who will join Verstappen on the second row - will start the race on the soft tyres, whereas the Mercedes pair will start on the medium compound.

Pierre Gasly put in a stellar lap to be best of the rest for AlphaTauri, ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris in sixth position. Charles Leclerc managed to put his Ferrari into seventh place, with Esteban Ocon of Alpine eighth - who got into Q3 for the first time since signing a new contract with the Alpine team. Fernando Alonso of Alpine and Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel rounded out the Q3 runners.

-Full weekend results

Hamilton delivers despite boos from grandstand

Hamilton was booed by the large contingent of Dutch fans in the grandstands as he did his interview after the session. "I have never felt so great with the booing," Hamilton said. "If anything it just fuels me, so I don't really mind it. It was an amazing qualifying lap that last one. Amazing team work from everyone this weekend, trying to push the car forward developing constantly. It has been amazing to see everyone rallying together. The soft tyre is worth something like five metres off the line going into Turn One. It's surprising seeing them on the soft. Great having a front row lock-out for our team, first time for a long time."

Verstappen, who starts the race eight points ahead of Hamilton in the championship, said: "The whole weekend we have been a bit behind and it showed again in qualifying. Not what we wanted but we are still there in third and will see what we can do." Red Bull's tyre choice was a surprise as the medium has better pace and durability for a race stint, but Verstappen said he had no choice but to complete his lap on the soft tyres on his second run in second qualifying as the time he set on medium tyres earlier was too marginal and he risked getting knocked out by midfield cars on the soft.

Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Perez was fourth after failing to get around in time to start a final lap. That happened after the Mercedes drivers in front of the Red Bulls, led by Bottas, did a very slow out lap before their final runs. Verstappen only just managed to get around in time to complete his final lap but Perez behind him did not. "What happened there?" he asked the team. "A bit of gamesmanship," his engineer said. 

The rest of the grid

Daniel Ricciardo slimly missed out on a place in Q3 for McLaren, with eleventh, ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and the two Alfa-Romeo cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. Carlos Sainz was fifteenth after he crashed his Ferrari at the final corner. The Spaniard may need to take a new gearbox after the rear end appeared to receive a knock. Yuki Tsunoda could only manage sixteenth for AlphaTauri, while George Russell in the Williams failed to reach Q2 for the first time this season in seventeenth. His teammate Nicholas Latifi was eighteenth, ahead of Nikita Mazepin in the Haas. His teammate Mick Schumacher failed to set a lap after crashing in FP3 on Saturday morning.

2021 Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Classification