@Max33Verstappen clinches maiden pole in intense #HungarianGP qualifying. #F1

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen claimed his maiden pole position in a thrilling Hungarian GP qualifying, beating Valtteri Bottas by 0.018 seconds as the Dutchman became the 100th different pole-sitter in the sport.

 

 

Verstappen took control in the initial runs during the third qualifying stage posting a lap of a 1:14.958, which put him 0.178 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Bottas.

 

Whilst Bottas improved over the Dutchman’s first benchmark at his second attempt, Verstappen already planted a 1:14.572 to take pole position by 0.018 seconds after a sensational final sector on his flyer.

 

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was adrift of Verstappen in third place and in-front of the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who was lucky to continue on after spinning at the final corner and hitting the barrier during Q1 to take fourth.

 

The other SF90 of Sebastian Vettel completed the top five and will start ahead of the second Red Bull of Pierre Gasly who qualified sixth with the Frenchman 0.878 seconds off of his team-mate’s effort.

 

The top six will be starting the Hungarian Grand Prix on the yellow side-walled C3 medium rubber after setting their best times in the Q2 session.

 

McLaren lead the best of the rest with Lando Norris taking seventh and in-front of eighth-placed Carlos Sainz by only 0.052 seconds.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean, running the Australian GP-spec VF-19 was ninth quickest and ended up 0.028 seconds quicker than Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen who rounded out the top ten.

 

Renault F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg failed to make Q3 and the German was the fastest of the Q2 eliminatees after Raikkonen’s late improvement nudged him out by less than a tenth.

 

Although Hulkenberg could not improve on his final hot lap, it was just enough to keep him in-front of Toro Rosso pairing Alexander Albon and Daniil Kvyat who were 12th and 13th respectively.

 

The other Alfa Romeo Racing C38 of Antonio Giovinazzi was 14th with the Italian also unable to find time on his last attempt, keeping him ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who qualified 15th in the latest upgraded VF-19 racer.

 

Giovinazzi however will start three places back in 17th after impeding Racing Point’s Lance Stroll’s timed lap.during the first stage of qualifying.

 

ROKiT Williams Racing’s George Russell narrowly missed out on a Q2 appearance by only 0.053 seconds with the Briton being in the top 15 for most of Q1 until the last moment.

 

The reigning Formula 2 champion ensured a clear track ahead of him for his final hot lap by making his attempt just before the rest of the pack began their flyers.

 

The Briton temporarily climbed up to a high of eighth but was dropped down as others improved, with Hulkenberg the final driver to move ahead and push Russell out in Q1.

 

Russell however starts in 15th due to the aforementioned Giovinazzi penalty.

 

Racing Point’s Sergio Perez made up enough time on his best effort to get the better of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, who had to back off of his final flyer.

 

Ricciardo found himself in a flurry of traffic at the final corner ahead of his last hot lap and attempted to go around Perez to find some clear air before backing out of it as the Mexican was ruthless in letting him go.

 

Perez is promoted to 16th due to Giovinazzi’s grid-drop and Ricciardo starts a low 18th.

 

Stroll was 19th quickest in the Mercedes-powered RP19 Racing Point and was eight tenths faster than ROKiT Williams Racing Robert Kubica who brought up the rear.

 

Missed out on qualifying? Watch the highlights video here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fso8oBb33XU

You can checkout Max Verstappen’s blistering pole position lap right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvlHBDD2R2M

 

The Top Three

 

Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “It has been a great day and the car was hooked up straight away in Qualifying. To come out on top is incredible and my first pole position will always be a special one. It’s also nice to get pole on a great track like this as a qualifying lap on low fuel is so enjoyable. You can really feel the grip of the car with the full downforce and it’s a lot of fun out there. We are closing in on the front-runners all the time and Honda keep pushing hard to optimise everything. Today was another great day for everyone within the Team, but that Team also includes Honda, so a big thank you as the car has been flying. The hard work is paying off and it’s great to see. I haven’t done a long run this weekend but lately our car has been even better in the race, so I don’t feel too worried. We just need to try and get a clean start and get the job done. I also didn’t realise there were so many Dutch people in Hungary at the moment and it was amazing to see them all in the grandstands. We are all very close so tomorrow should be another exciting race.”

 

2nd – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “I’ve been chasing a little bit this weekend, after missing out on Practice One and only doing limited laps in Practice Two. I only really started getting into my rhythm this morning and it was just getting better and better through Qualifying. So, I’m pleased with the lap in the end. It was very close with Max but he just managed to sneak ahead. They’ve been quick all weekend but tomorrow is what counts. We’re here to fight for the win and there’s a lot of support for me from the Finnish fans, so we’ll be giving it everything and it’s going to be a good battle.”

 

3rd – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “Naturally, we’re always targeting first place. But Max did a great job, congratulations to him, and so did Valtteri. It got away from me a little bit during Qualifying. It was a difficult session, the car didn’t feel quite the same as in FP3 and I struggled a bit. But we’re still in the fight and in a good position for tomorrow. There’s a long run down to Turn 1, so it’s going to be very interesting. It’s not the easiest place to overtake, but strategy will come into it. So, we’ll be pushing hard tomorrow.”

 

Formula 1 Rolex Magyar Nagydij 2019 Qualifying and Provisional Starting Grid Classification

 

POS	DRIVER	CAR	GAP
1	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m14.572s
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	0.018s
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	0.197s
4	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	0.471s
5	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	0.499s
6	Pierre Gasly	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	0.878s
7	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1.228s
8	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1.280s
9	Romain Grosjean	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	1.441s
10	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	1.469s
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	1.993s
12	Alexander Albon	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	2.115s
13	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	2.120s
14	Kevin Magnussen	Rich Energy Haas F1 Team	2.509s
15	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	2.459s
16	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	2.537s
17	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	2.232s
18	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	2.685s
19	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	2.970s
20	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	3.752s