VETTEL IN CHARGE WITH HUNGARY POLE
▶ Championship leader shines in qualifying in Budapest as rival Hamilton struggles to fourth spot on the grid
Sebastian Vettel’s hopes of re-opening a lead at the top of the Formula One drivers’ championship received a boost after he and Ferrari shone in qualifying yesterday to claim pole position for today’s Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
The German saw his advantage slashed to just a solitary point at the British Grand Prix two weeks ago as a puncture on the penultimate lap at Silverstone dropped him to seventh place as title rival Lewis Hamilton won.
But Vettel set himself up to bounce back perfectly today after his lap of 1 minute, 16.276 seconds was the quickest at the Hungaroring during qualifying.
It was the 48th pole of the four-time world champion’s career, and it will be an all Ferrari front row as Kimi Raikkonen took second spot with a last gasp lap.
With Hamilton, who had a troubled qualifying after making a mistake on his first flying lap in the final part of the session in his Mercedes-GP, only fourth, it is looking good for Vettel to build up a decent advantage going into the sport’s four-week summer break that comes after today’s race.
Vettel, who has triumphed three times already this season, but has not won in the past four races, was not taking anything for granted.
“The car has been incredible all day,” he said.
“We made a good step forward. I like this track a lot and it’s been really enjoyable.
“It’s a front row for us so we’re looking forward to tomorrow.
“Nothing changed over-night. The last race wasn’t great for us but that doesn’t matter now. I’m very happy where we are as a team.
“The main task comes tomorrow. Nothing has been won today.”
A despondent Hamilton, who has won in Hungary five times in the past, said that starting fourth has ruined his chances of challenging for victory, and that only inspired strategy from his Mercedes team could allow him to be a threat to Vettel.
“You can’t overtake here. It’s most likely going to be a train unless we can do something with strategy,” he said to TV crews after the session.
“Getting past the Ferraris is going to be an almost impossible task, unless they have problems.
“We shall see, we’ll give everything we can and at least get some points.”
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff echoed his driver’s thoughts and said the start is the only chance that Hamilton and his teammate Valtteri Bottas, who starts third, will have to get ahead of the Ferraris.
“It is very difficult,” said Wolff of gaining position over other cars on track at the 4.381-kilometre Hungaroring circuit.
“The start is the best possibility to jump them, the run down to the first turn is very long.
“Strategy wise I guess there is not a lot of possibilities.”
Behind the two Ferraris and the two Mercedes cars are the Red Bull Racing pair of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.
On Friday it had been Ricciardo who had set the pace in practice, and he was disappointed to be only sixth on the grid, but upbeat on his prospects for the 70-lap race.
“I feel like we’re better than sixth, so that’s frustrating,” Ricciardo said. “For sure I could’ve cleaned up a few areas. I think we’ll be strong tomorrow.
“I wish the race was in about two minutes’ time.”