@GeorgeRussell63 beats @Carlossainz55 to shock maiden #HungarianGP pole. #F1

Russell Hungarian GP pole – Mercedes’ George Russell pipped Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to a maiden pole position at the Hungarian GP by 0.044 seconds whilst points leader Max Verstappen suffered power issues to wind up tenth.

 

 

The Briton was an unlikely contender to top qualifying after the struggles of the Silver Arrows F1 W13 all season, not least during both dry and wet running at the Hungaroring so far this weekend.

 

But despite not taking a quick sector on his crucial flyer, his combined runs took the Mercedes driver to the top over Sainz, who had the best of his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc.

 

But it was a session to forget for Oracle Red Bull Racing, with Verstappen lining up 10^th on the grid as Sergio Perez failed to make it out of Q2 and will start 11^th.

 

The day-long rain which was forecast held-off to allow qualifying to take place on Saturday afternoon in Budapest.

 

Sainz held provisional pole on a 1:17.505 and was 0.463 clear of Mercedes’ Russell with his Ferrari team-mate Leclerc a further 0.480 seconds adrift in third due to a snap at turn one as he struggled with tyres.

 

With Verstappen fighting over-steer to run-off circuit at turn two and suffering a lock-up, the Dutchman only ended up seventh quickest after his initial flyer.

 

The top ten emerged one more time with three minutes and 40 seconds remaining, but Verstappen was soon complaining of no power onboard his RB18 racer – going through sensor modes, which were not enough to resolve the issue.

 

With the reigning world champion, who leads Leclerc in the Driver’s Championship by 63 points, out of the picture, Sainz charged to the top with the fastest sector one of everyone (pipping Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi).

 

This gave the British GP pole-sitter P1 on the grid initially as Leclerc fell 0.15 seconds off, but then three personal bests at the end gave Russell the unlikely maiden pole.

 

His 1:17.377 effort pipped Sainz’s 1:17.421 best, whilst Leclerc managed to remain in-front of McLaren’s Lando Norris – the Mercedes-powered MCL36 looking impressive in dry qualifying and race simulations during FP2 yesterday.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon beat his team-mate Fernando Alonso to fifth on the grid in the A522 scrap, whilst Sir Lewis Hamilton suffered a DRS failure to qualify seventh in the other Mercedes F1 W13.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas clinched eighth and ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who took ninth as the aforementioned Verstappen completed the top ten.

 

In the middle qualifying stage, which was topped by Verstappen, his Red Bull team-mate Perez was eliminated and will start the Hungarian GP in 11^th.

 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Zhou Guanyu qualified in 12^th and ahead of Haas F1 Team pairing Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher who were 13^th and 15^th respectively as Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll split the two VF-22 racers in 14^th.

 

In the first segment of qualifying, which was topped by Hamilton, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees and in-front of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who took 17^th and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who qualified a low-18^th.

 

The other AlphaTauri AT03 entry of Pierre Gasly ended Q1 in 19^th after losing his lap-time for running over the white line at turn five and ahead of Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi who brought up the rear.

 

Latifi had set a purple sector one and personal best in sector could not progress into the second qualifying stage after making an error at the final corner.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco Magyar Nagydij 2022 Qualifying Results Classification by clicking on the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1117/hungary/qualifying.html

---

2022 Hungarian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

 

 

2022 Hungarian GP Pole Position – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W13 E Performance, 1:17.377:

“Yesterday was probably our worst Friday of the season. Then that last lap, Turn 1 was mega, Turn 2. The lap kept coming and I looked at the screen and saw P1, was amazing. We need to understand where that came from today, we generally have good race pace and we’re going to be absolutely going for it.”

 

2^nd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75, +0.044:

“Today I felt I had the pace for pole, it went away in the last sector with a few snaps but congratulations to George, he must have done a great lap. We have the pace; the tyre management will play a big role and Mercedes race pace is an unknown. I think it will be an exciting race.”

 

3^rd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, F1-75, +0.190:

“I was struggling with the tyres, getting the tyres in the right window. I’m sure we’ve got the pace in the car to come back a bit more into it so I’m sure we’ll have a better Sunday.”

 

In the damp earlier FP3 session, Williams Racing’s Latifi topped the session ahead of Ferrari’s Leclerc who was second and team-mate Albon in the other FW44 Williams entry completed the top three as reigning champion Verstappen placed fourth for Red Bull and Mercedes’ Russell rounded out the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Aramco Hungarian Grand Prix 2022 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1117/hungary/practice-3.html