13/24: Qualifying

Before the start of Q1, there was a continuous downpour of rain but come Q1, it was mostly dry conditions and drivers came out on slick tyres. With potential rain around the corner, the first time was crucial for all the drivers as that could be the best conditions for the session. After the end of the first couple of runs, it was Hamilton, Sainz and Verstappen who were in the lead while the Haas’s, Stroll, Ricciardo and Guanyu were the drivers under risk of elimination. Russell had to abandon his lap as he spun putting him under risk in P14. Sergio Perez who was under pressure due to his slump in form, hit the wall during his lap, bringing his end in the qualifying and a red flag as rain continued to increase.

After the red flag, it was Russell and Guanyu were the ones who started their flying laps but with rain during the red flag and with DRS being disabled due to low grip conditions they couldn’t improve their times by much. The times however were close enough and this meant everyone had just one lap available to them to improve on their times. Even without the DRS, times fell rapidly as Riccardo went fastest of all drivers while all the other drivers in the elimination zone improved on their times moving into Q2 except Guanyu. Alpine, who believed that the times wont improve stayed in the pits and ended up P19 and P20 while Russell didn’t have enough fuel to go again and was knocked out along with Perez.

With similar conditions in Q2, it was Verstappen who set the pace early with Piastri just 15 thousandths of a second behind him while Alonso and Norris were about 4 and 5 tenths away from the lead. Bottas, Sergeant, Albon, Hulkenberg and Ricciardo were the drivers under risk of elimination. Ricciardo however didnt opt to put in a lap during the first runs. However, the first runs were mostly different tyre uses by different cars and it wasn’t really an indication of whats to come.

With the track getting better and better, times kept falling but the top drivers were safe with their delta. Norris was the one who improved going over two tenths faster than Verstappen while Hamilton didn’t have a great lap at all and ended up in P10. Hulkenberg, Bottas and Magnussen all had their chances to displace Hamilton and knock him out of Q3 but the Brit just held it on by 1 hundredth of a second. The two Williams were the last two cars that finished out of the top 10 and going out in Q2.

Rain was forecasted within the first 7 minutes at the start of Q3, and this meant the first runs would lead to the pole position. Verstappen and Piastri were the first drivers to go and the Redbull was almost three tenths faster than the McLaren. Leclerc, Hamilton and Sainz followed next but it was Norris who went fastest by over three tenths on Verstappen and held the advantage after the first run. Rain did arrive with 6 minutes to go and drivers came out for second runs with nearly 5 minutes to go. Only Norris, Leclerc and Stroll were in the pits as their first runs were the last to put the laps.

Even with rain, the drivers were improving on their times with Piastri and Verstappen going faster than Norris in sector 1 and sector 2 but in the end Norris held his pole position by just 2 hundredths of a second from Piastri while Piastri beat Verstappen for P2. However, with 2 minutes to go and Norris yet to give his reply, Tsunoda crashed bringing in the second red flag for the session. With two minutes to go, there was time for drivers to go and set another time. Verstappen opted out of going again, and it was a battle between the McLarens for the pole but the times were nowhere as expected and it was Norris who clinched pole.

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Round 13/24: Review of the Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying

Q1

Q2

Q3

References

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