When Lewis Hamilton raced across the finish line at the end of an exciting qualifying and snatched pole position from his rival Max Verstappen with a tiny lead, thousands of fans in the stands in Budapest shouted their joy. And the Mercedes star also roared. “I almost lost my voice from screaming in the car,” said Hamilton: “I threw everything in, there was nothing left.”
After 594 days, what feels like an eternity, Hamilton is back on pole. After a true magic lap, he surprisingly pushed Verstappen into second place, in the end the two rivals were separated by just three thousandths of a second. “It feels like the very first time,” said Hungary record winner Hamilton beaming – he is also about to extend his contract with Mercedes. Third was the recently strong Lando Norris in the McLaren. Verstappen found it unusually difficult in his Red Bull at the Hungaroring, and the new regulations in qualifying meant that the drivers could not freely choose their tires.
Hülkenberg drives strong, returnee Ricciardo directly faster than his teammate
Verstappen struggled with the “balance” of his car, as the defending champion said: “Then suddenly you’re only second. I think we should be in front with the car, but it didn’t work out.”
Nico Hülkenberg, who is in Budapest with squeaky blonde hair, was pretty pessimistic beforehand because of the new tire rule – but then showed a very strong performance again. The Emmericher starts the race in tenth place in his defeated Haas. Returnee Daniel Ricciardo, who replaced the sacked Nyck de Vries at Alpha Tauri in the middle of the season, was immediately faster than his new teammate Yuki Tsunoda and started from 13th place.
Hamilton versus Verstappen – memories of the exciting 2021 season are awakened, when the two fought a great duel. That “contains a bit of fuel,” said Helmut Marko, motorsport consultant at Red Bull, on Sky: “There is no longer any talk of boredom in Formula 1.”
When you look at the World Cup, however, it is. After the last six wins in a row, Verstappen leads the World Championship by 99 points, the closest “pursuer” is his teammate Perez. With his 255 points, Verstappen alone would lead the team classification.
Red Bull before record – Formula 1 tests tire regulation to become more sustainable
Red Bull set a record of 12 consecutive wins in Hungary on Sunday. The racing team currently shares the record of eleven consecutive victories with McLaren, who achieved this feat in 1988 with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Verstappen and Co. did not have a free choice of tires for the first time in qualifying. Formula 1 tested a rule change called “Alternative Tire Allocation” at the Hungaroring to improve the sustainability of the sport. The drivers had to use the hard tire compound in the first run, the medium tires in the second and then the fastest variant with the softs in the third. The format will be tested a second time in Monza in early September.