HAMILTON ON POLE
Hungarian GP
FORMULA ONE’S critics always cry that you can’t tell how much is down to the car and how much to the driver.
Well, they should have been here at the rain-sodden Hungaroring yesterday while Lewis Hamilton was rising above his machinery.
The Briton produced a stunning lap to put himself not merely on pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix but half a world apart from the other finest men racing today.
Sebastian Vettel, his principal challenger for the title and a fellow four-time world champion, was 0.552sec back. And his Ferrari was appreciably quicker than Hamilton’s Mercedes throughout practice.
Hamilton’s spanking of Vettel here should be remembered when history is written and drivers are assessed. So should the manner in which the two men circled the 2.7-mile track amid plume-tails of spray. Hamilton exuded controlled authority while Vettel was a fraction cautious.
Perhaps the German was constricted by the memory of sliding off in the soggy German Grand Prix last weekend. He never looked likely to overcome Hamilton yesterday, or indeed Valtteri Bottas, who was second quickest and a quarter of a second off the pace, or Kimi Raikkonen in third.
Asked if yesterday’s disparity proved that he is better than Vettel, Hamilton said: ‘I know the answer to that question but it is up to you and the public to judge.
‘I can only try to be the best every single time I get on the track. Regardless of opinions, ultimately I hope results will speak for themselves.’
Hamilton, who takes a 17-point lead into today’s race, must have been delighted when the blue skies turned grey and the storm rolled in. He had struggled for speed in the dry, losing out on the timesheets to Bottas, let alone to the red cars. His practice form was scruffy.
‘I had no idea I’d be on pole,’ Hamilton said. ‘I knew I had to put together each sector really well to beat the Ferraris. In the last sector, it especially felt as if I’d made the difference.
‘I was thinking you only get certain moments once in a lifetime. I thought it is now or never. I may be back here next year but I will be in a different position. I will never be 33 and here again.’
Hamilton’s body of work in the wet is increasingly extensive, starting in the foothills of Mount Fuji 12 seasons ago. His one-minute margin of victory at rain-tossed Silverstone in 2008 and his pole lap in the delayed Monza qualifying last year — better even than yesterday’s extravagance — stand out in what can only be a subjective appraisal of a long list of derring-do.
It may be a different story if the hot weather returns today, as forecasters predict it will. Ferrari will be strong again. But track position means a lot on this slow circuit. In 20 of the previous 32 stagings of this race, the winner has come from the front row, 14 times from pole.
‘In the dry we were pretty much in control,’ said Vettel. ‘In wet conditions we are not as confident as in the dry and there is some work to do.’
Red Bull had a disappointing day. Max Verstappen was seventh while his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was a big-name casualty of the rain. The Australian failed to set a good enough opening fast lap in the second session and had no realistic chance of improving on 12th place later on, the conditions having deteriorated.
The worsening weather made tyre selection between intermediates and full wets difficult.
Fernando Alonso was exasperated, telling the McLaren pit wall: ‘Put on what tyres you want. The last sector is impossible. Even if you put on a rocket ship we will not improve.’ He was 11th then and stayed 11th.
‘It’s been an emotional day,’ said Hamilton, his work done and the 77th pole of his career completed for posterity.