As the sun finally made it appearance on Saturday, after a full wet Friday Free Practice at the Hungaroring for the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, it was Max Verstappen in the Red Bull who topped the charts in Q3 to start from pole. Alongside him, Valterri Bottas will start from the second on the grid on the front row, with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton behind him.
Verstappen topped Q1 as Charles Leclerc, in the wake of the turbulent air from Vettel’s Ferrari, spun going through the long final turn going onto the main straight and clipped the back of his Ferrari. Leclerc has already set a good lap time to go through to Q2, however, his car needed a new rear wing to be fitted before the next session.
George Russell, although eliminated after Q1, managed to put in a lap which was faster than the two Racing Point cars and the Renault of Ricciardo which spit the two, and his team-mate. He is set to start 16th on the grid ahead of Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Robert Kubica.
In Q2, Ferrari managed to fix Leclerc’s car in time for the second session of qualifying and he was out on track as soon as the session began. However, it was Lewis Hamilton who topped the session with Verstappen closely following behind. Nico Hulkenberg in the second Renault, followed by the two Torro Rosso cars of Alex Albon and Daniil Kvyat with Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa Romeo and Kevin Magnussen in the Hass were unable to make it to Q3.
The sun went down as the final session of qualifying began dropping the track temperature. In the midst of changing track conditions, Verstappen set a blistering time on his first run to top the charts. Both Mercedes were close behind him on pace, but the Ferraris were just not able to match the pace. The pack on their second run, Leclerc was unable to eclipse the pace of Verstappen who then went and bettered his time for provision pole. All eyes were on the Mercedes cars and Vettel. However, Bottas failed to beat Verstappen, neither did Hamilton. Vettel only managed fifth for Ferrari.
The top 10 in Q three stand with Verstappen on pole with Bottas, Hamilton Leclerc and Vettel in second, third, fourth and fifth. Pierre Gasly will start from sixth in the second Red Bull, the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz will start from seventh and eight respectively. Romain Grosjean in the Haas and Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo make up the final two cars in the top 10.
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