Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing destroyed their rivals to clinch a convincing 1-2 on the starting grid in Hungary on Saturday. The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will start third and fourth with Lewis Hamilton fifth for McLaren. However, team-mate and Champion Jenson Button will set off from only 11th.
Once again, although rain had threatened to hit a Formula 1 qualifying session, conditions remained dry at the Hungaroring as the field wondered what could be done to come close to the dominant Red Bulls on Saturday.
Q1 provided no major dramas although Kamui Kobayashi was disappointed to have been eliminated at the first hurdle after being held up by a Hispania car at Turn 12. With himself 18th, team-mate Pedro de la Rosa confirmed the team’s true pace by making the top ten. However, the Japanese has now been called before the stewards after driving past an orange light and not making his way to scrutineering in the pit lane.
Behind, Virgin Racing Team Principal John Booth dubbed their result a ‘mini celebration’ as Timo Glock out-qualified the two Lotus cars and therefore leads the way for the sport’s new teams for the third time this season.
Felipe Massa was first out on-track in Q2, with the phase being the one in which the Brazilian crashed and so nearly lost his life last year. Red Bull, which had elected to remain in the pits for the final six minutes of Q1, did go back out for more laps before Q2 came to a close, with Webber being just four hundredths of a second up on Vettel but a massive seven tenths ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.
Michael Schumacher gave himself a single lap to improve from 14th although the 7-time World Champion – who picked up his 2001 title in Hungary – could not improve his position, despite being able to at the end of Q1. Current Champion Jenson Button also struggled in the McLaren and will start 11th with Rubens Barrichello 12th for Williams, having lifted off at Turn 12 on his final lap.
Despite losing some 70 minutes of practice time yesterday, Adrian Sutil posted a credible effort in 13th by out-qualifying team-mate Liuzzi by some four tenths of a second.
Two rookies posted great lap times to move into the top ten shootout, although both Renault’s Vitaly Petrov and Williams’ Nico Hülkenberg – plus Rosberg’s Mercedes and de la Rosa’s Sauber – were forced to make do with the harder Bridgestone tyre compound, having all used up their three allocated Option sets in Q2.
Petrov’s result was particularly impressive, out-qualifying team-mate Robert Kubica for the first time in 2010 after the Pole ran wide at Turn 2.
At the front, with Vettel already quickest courtesy of best sector times in all parts of the lap, Webber was unable to better the best tour of his team-mate although the German still decided to complete his final round, but without improving.
Ferrari fill the second row slots, with Alonso having been faster than Massa all weekend, as Hamilton and Rosberg confirm their ‘best of the rest’ positions ahead of the Renaults. De la Rosa’s last lap placed him ahead of Hülkenberg and the pairing will start ninth and tenth on Sunday.
However, it is a dominant performance by Red Bull Racing and a perfect way to begin the weekend which marks their 100th Grand Prix. A massive 1.2 seconds faster than their closest rival, anything short of a 1-2 result will be viewed as a disappointment in the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix.
- Full qualifying results
- Post-qualifying feelings from pole winner Sebastian Vettel
The race begins at 2pm local time on Sunday (BST +1) and can also be tracked live via GPUpdate.net
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