The Scottish Mail on Sunday

LUCKLESS LEWIS

Yellow flag controvers­y as Rosberg pushes to the limit leaving Hamilton in second

- From Joseph Downes AT THE HUNGARORIN­G

SUCCESS and failure in Formula One comes down to perfecting your sense of timing.

Lewis Hamilton, through no fault of his own, got his timing spectacula­rly wrong yesterday. Nico Rosberg, by the finest of margins, nailed his timing to snatch pole position for today’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

The German was two tenths of a second quicker than his Mercedes team-mate, who will start from second.

Hamilton was quickest until the closing seconds when he was forced to abandon his final flying lap after Fernando Alonso’s spin just in front of him. Rosberg, a few corners further back, was able to complete his effort after Alonso recovered.

Double yellow flags instructin­g the drivers to slow for the incident were still waving. Rosberg (left) lifted off the throttle, but still had enough in hand without drawing the ire of the stewards. It marked a return to the bad luck that blighted Hamilton’s start to the season and left the Briton calling for rule clarificat­ion. ‘I was four tenths up on Nico so I definitely believed I would get pole,’ said Hamilton. ‘It was just really unfortunat­e I had to lose my lap. ‘When it’s a double yellow it says be prepared for a car or a steward on the track because you don’t know what’s around the corner. You have to be prepared to stop. ‘Nico only lost a tenth through the corner so if that’s really what we’re allowed to do in future on double yellows, where I thought you had to pay more caution, that’s now different for all us drivers. But I’m not sure that’s the safest approach.’

Hamilton is seeking a recordbrea­king fifth win here but now has it all to do as he seeks to overhaul the one-point championsh­ip lead held by Rosberg, who defended his actions.

‘I did what you have to do and that is lift,’ he said. ‘I did lift and as a result slow down. I am driving safely out there.’

Rosberg survived a stewards’ inquiry last night and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff backed the German’s actions.

‘When he entered the yellow zone he lifted considerab­ly and lost time and you can see this on the data very clearly,’ he said.

‘These drivers are the best drivers in the world. They need to be in control and they need to be able to judge what speed is appropriat­e for the circumstan­ces and I think we can trust them.’

Rosberg’s late show was a fittingly dramatic end to a tumultuous qualifying session.

Heavy rain delayed the start by 20 minutes before four red flags punctuated the running.

Crashes by Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Massa and Rio Haryanto meant the first session of 18 minutes took almost three times that to complete.

The latter’s accident ruined plenty of flying laps and there was no chance to improve.

Jolyon Palmer was among the losers and the expletives followed over his Renault team radio feed.

The second session was only mildly less chaotic as teams agonised over tyre choice.

With the Hungarorin­g once again bathed in sunshine, Valtteri Bottas was first to take the plunge on the slick tyres.

He went a second quicker than the best effort on the intermedia­te tyres and so the rest followed suit in a frantic final few minutes.

The times tumbled and Hamilton almost lost out after making an error on turn one of his final lap. Kimi Raikkonen was not so lucky. An error of judgement by his Ferrari team meant the Finn got one lap fewer on the quicker rubber than everyone else and became the biggest casualty missing final qualifying.

 ??  ?? IN A SPIN: Hamilton is forced to slow down after Alonso flies out in Hungary, leaving him in second (below) behind his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg
IN A SPIN: Hamilton is forced to slow down after Alonso flies out in Hungary, leaving him in second (below) behind his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg
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