Good morning and good day all F1 enthusiasts new and present. We are back at the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix for the 13th race of the season. The track is called the Hungaroring Circuit in Budapest Hungary.
We are back for the Qualifying sessions (Q1 Q2 & Q3).
It has stopped raining and the track is semi-dry.
Pole position is key to this race more than any other track. It is very difficult to overtake but keep in mind that the track is tight and the corners need to be tamed by the drivers. If not, we could see a few pile ups of carriage, and that could impact the outcome of the race.
This the second half of the day is the most adrenaline-charged in sense of pure racing speed at its best.
Qualifying for pole position is as follows and will take part in three sections.
Q1 top 15 of 20 racing cars with the quickest time advance into Q2.
The top 10 out of fifteen racing cars remaining advance to Q3 where pole position will be decided by the top ten fastest times.
The qualifying “time” session will be into three mini sessions.
Q1 is 18 minutes long, followed by a seven-minute break.
Q2 is 15 minutes long, followed by an eight-minute break.
Q3 for pole position is 12 minutes long.
Qualifying (Q1, Q2 & Q3)
It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens.
We have a green light… and they are off onto the track. The drivers are going for a few laps to warm up the rubber on the tyres. This will give them the best grip possible before setting off on flying laps.
(Note: We could see clouds on the horizon that could affect Q3 for pole position.)
Away they go… There flying out there… Times are dropping off fast..
Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell set up the fastest three laps on the timesheet.
The pace is more rapid, and times are dropping fast, as we see the first 5 drivers eliminated, Latifi, Gasly, Vettel, Albon and Tsunoda.
(Interesting observations: Top two on the timesheet we have 2 Mercedes drivers, Hamilton and Russell.)
Two Alpha Tauri drivers and two Team Williams drivers are out of Q1 and will not advance into Q2!
Q2
The break is over and the racing carriages are back onto the track for Q2.
We have a green light and they are off…
It is getting tight out there, this is a short track and breaking must be timed at the proper line.
Drivers going wide and flying laps are being removed passing the lines of the track.
We have a mixed bag of teams in the top five so far on the timesheet, McLaren, Alpine, Ferrari, Red Bull and Alpha Romeo!
Less than 5 min to go in Q2… Still not a clear front runner and the teams are playing coy!
The last few flying laps out there… less than 2 mins… bottom 5 drivers trying to jump up into the top ten, and we have the next 5 drivers eliminated. Schumacher, Stroll, Magnusson, Zhou and Perez.
(Note on the last flying lap that Magnusson blocks Perez. That is a shock for Red Bull Racing. Perez will not be in the top ten.)
Q3
Onto Q3, we have a green light and the “shootout” begins.
It is go-time… Full speed ahead for the fastest time and pole position!
Less than 5 mins in Q3 and we see Sainz set the fastest sector and is on top of the timesheet with 21 seconds to go.
Last flying lap coming in… It’s going to be close… and we have it… WOW!
First time in pole position! George Russell finishes with a time of 1:17.377.
Followed by two Ferrari drivers. In 2nd is Sainz with a time of +0.044 and in 3rd is Leclerc with a time of +0.190.
In 4th is Norris with a time of +0.893 and finishing 5th is Ocon to round up the top 5.
Quote
“Yesterday was probably our worst Friday of the season. Then that last lap, Turn 1 was mega and Turn 2. The lap kept coming and I looked at the screen and saw P1 was amazing. We need to understand where that came from today, we generally have a good race pace and we’re going to be absolutely going for it.”
Upcoming
Race Day is on Sunday July 31st 2022 with a starting time of 9:00 a.m., Coverage starts at 7:45 a.m.
Look out for our pre race brief on the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix
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