{"id":569404,"date":"2019-08-03T17:18:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-03T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/opinion\/2019-hungarian-grand-prix-qualifying-report-verstappen-is-100th-pole-sitter"},"modified":"2020-11-24T10:32:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T10:32:41","slug":"2019-hungarian-grand-prix-qualifying-report-verstappen-100th-pole-sitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/articles\/single-seaters\/f1\/2019-hungarian-grand-prix-qualifying-report-verstappen-100th-pole-sitter\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying report: Verstappen is 100th pole-sitter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen didn’t just claim pole position in qualifying for the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, he also showed that the championship isn’t won yet<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n

Verstapen celebrates his career-first F1 pole<\/strong> Photo: Motorsport Images<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAbout time, mate!\u201d Red Bull told Max Verstappen as he became the 100th driver in F1 history to record a pole position. <\/p>\n

Max<\/a> thought he was going to do it in Mexico last year and was visibly annoyed when Red Bull<\/a> team-mate Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> \u2013 who celebrated as if he\u2019d won the championship! \u2013 pipped him by three-hundredths. <\/p>\n

That put paid to Max usurping Sebastian Vettel<\/a> as the youngest pole-sitter of all time but it was all forgotten as Max\u2019s pleasure in Budapest was as marked as his disappointment in Mexico City.<\/p>\n

\n

Don’t miss full race analysis in Mark Hughes’ report: sign up to the F1 newsletter<\/a><\/big><\/p>\n

\n

With the RB15 looking ever more threatening since the introduction of its updated front wing in Austria, you figured that the team might be in the pole fight around Hungaroring but that Mercedes<\/a> was still favourite. Verstappen though, in a rich vein of form, produced a fantastic lap to pip Valtteri Bottas<\/a> by two hundredths, the pole cemented by a slightly better exit from the final turn. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels incredible,\u201d Max said, as he stepped out and was interviewed in front of the travelling Dutch army. \u201cThe car was absolutely flying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps more accurately, its driver was. Pierre Gasly<\/a>, by contrast, was sixth, 0.88sec slower\u2026 \u201cMax was on fire this afternoon,\u201d said Christian Horner. \u201cHe really needed to nail that last corner, and did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Valtteri<\/p>\n

Bottas missed out on pole by two-hundredths of a second<\/strong> Photo: Motorsport Images<\/em><\/p>\n

Valtteri Bottas might not be \u2018box office\u2019 but you\u2019ve got to feel for him, under pressure as he is to retain his Mercedes drive. Hockenheim hurt<\/a>. He was by no means the only driver to make a mistake \u2013 most did \u2013 but it blew a golden opportunity with Lewis Hamilton<\/a> suffering both physically and on-track. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always painful when it\u2019s down to you,\u201d Bottas admitted in Hungary. \u201cThe pace in the wet was not so good as we hoped. And we didn\u2019t have the best performance on slicks at high speed: it was very oversteery and a bit too much on the nose. We were still overheating the rears which we weren\u2019t expecting in those temperatures and then, pushing, I made the error.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Valtteri had punished himself for a couple of hours on a bike the day after the German race and was over it by lunchtime. He turned up in Budapest determined to turn the page but then lost the whole of FP1 to an electrical issue that meant a power unit change for FP2. That was pretty much wiped out by changeable weather, but even in truncated running, Bottas felt that the W10 was better in the wet than in Germany. <\/p>\n

He did a strong job to almost take pole and to outqualify Hamilton by 0.17sec. He could have done with those extra three-hundredths though. It\u2019s just not quite happening for him. <\/p>\n

Hamilton said he\u2019d literally slept for three days between Germany and Hungary, trying to fight off the bug that incapacitated him at Hockenheim, but was still in need of a bit more rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car didn\u2019t feel quite as good in qualifying as in FP3 (which he topped by a hundredth from Verstappen) but it\u2019s a long run to Turn One and the race strategy is going to be interesting,\u201d he predicted.<\/p>\n

\"Ferrari<\/p>\n

Leclerc was lucky to escape his bump with the wall<\/strong> Photo: Motorsport Images<\/em><\/p>\n

Ferrari<\/a> suspected it had insufficient downforce to truly challenge around Hungaroring, and was correct. Charles Leclerc<\/a> put his car on the second row, 0.03sec quicker than Sebastian Vettel. The red cars were a tenth and a bit quicker than Mercedes and Red Bull in sector one \u2013 the grunt sector \u2013 but gave away more than three tenths to their rivals in the twisty final sector. <\/p>\n

Leclerc admitted to being immensely fortunate to be able to finish qualifying after reversing into the tyre barrier on the exit of the final turn in Q1, damaging the rear wing and crash structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the team for the good work,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it was an unnecessary mistake from me, which is two in the last two grands prix. I had Seb in front of me starting a lap and I knew I\u2019d lose a bit of downforce but that\u2019s no excuse. Completely my mistake. But Q3 was positive and I don\u2019t think I could do any better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Related content<\/big><\/p>\n