F1 Hungarian Grand Prix: Hamilton crushes rivals for pole position

Defending F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday, with a lap time of 1:22.020 at the 4.381 km circuit.

Having established a clear three tenths lead after the first run in Q3, the Mercedes AMG F1 driver went even quicker on his final run, eventually beating teammate Nico Rosberg’s 1:22.775 by almost six tenths off a second.

Former four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel was Mercedes’ closest challenger in third place, albeit seventh tenths down on the quickest time of the session. Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen had looked strong all weekend long and was on par with Vettel in the first sector, before having to settle for fifth fastest time of the session.

Red Bull’s practice pace carried to qualifying with Daniel Ricciardo going fourth quickest, just over three hundredths of a second down on former teammate and Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.

Williams - who locked the second row of the grid at the last race at Silverstone - were resigned to sixth and eighth places respectively in Hungary, with Bottas qualifying ahead of Massa.

Max Verstappen catapulted his Toro Rosso to ninth place in qualifying while Romain Grosjean completed the top 10 for Lotus.

Neither of the Force Indias made it into Q3, having missed the second practice to investigate an issue with Perez’s car. The Mexican will line up 13th on the grid while teammate Hulkenberg will start the race from 11th place.

Earlier in the session, McLaren’s Jenson Button failed to make into the second leg of qualifying with an ERS issue. McLaren’s problems were compounded when Fernando Alonso’s car came to a halt at the entry of the pitlane in Q2, bringing out the red flags.

F1 Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying Results (Top 10)

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:22.020
2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:22.775
3. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1:22.739
4. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1:22.774
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1:23.020
6. Valtteri Bottas (Williams) 1:23.222
7. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull) 1:23.332
8. Felipe Massa (Williams) 1:23.537
9. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) 1:23.679
10. Romain Grosjean (Lotus) 1:24.181