Hamilton has to fight from behind again

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix pre-race analysis

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Mercedes weathered a rain-soaked qualifying session to lock out the front row of the grid for the sixth time this year. However they’ve only converted one of those into a one-two finish, and with the Red Bulls lurking Sunday may not be entirely straightforward.

The battle between the Mercedes drivers also promises to deliver much intrigue. Lewis Hamilton, second on the grid, has usually been the quicker of the two Mercedes this weekend but circumstances played against him in Q3, aiding Nico Rosberg’s bid for pole position.

As usual the start will be especially vital at a track where overtaking opportunities are limited. Last year Hamilton went off on the first lap of this race trying to pass his team mate.

The Hungaroring has one of the longest runs to the first corner of any track on the calendar: over 600 metres. An even slightly poor getaway could bring an especially severe punishment.

One consequence of the rain-hit qualifying session is that drivers now have more fresh sets of tyres to use in the race (see below). The likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, followingto their problems in qualifying, have extra unused super-soft tyres to throw at their car which could be useful for a late blast after a helpfully-timed Safety Car period.

However it’s far from certain they will need slick tyres all the way tomorrow. The weather forecast for this weekend has been in a constant state of flux and further thunderstorms are possible tomorrow afternoon.

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Qualifying times in full

DriverCarQ1

Q2 (vs Q1)

Q3 (vs Q2)
1Nico RosbergMercedes1’33.3021’22.806 (-10.496)1’19.965 (-2.841)
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’34.2101’24.836 (-9.374)1’20.108 (-4.728)
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’39.9681’23.234 (-16.734)1’20.280 (-2.954)
4Max VerstappenRed Bull1’40.4241’22.660 (-17.764)1’20.557 (-2.103)
5Sebastian VettelFerrari1’35.7181’24.082 (-11.636)1’20.874 (-3.208)
6Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso1’36.1151’24.734 (-11.381)1’21.131 (-3.603)
7Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1’35.1651’23.816 (-11.349)1’21.211 (-2.605)
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’37.9831’24.456 (-13.527)1’21.597 (-2.859)
9Nico HulkenbergForce India1’41.4711’23.901 (-17.570)1’21.823 (-2.078)
10Valtteri BottasWilliams1’42.7581’24.506 (-18.252)1’22.182 (-2.324)
11Romain GrosjeanHaas1’35.9061’24.941 (-10.965)
12Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1’36.7141’25.301 (-11.413)
13Sergio PerezForce India1’41.4111’25.416 (-15.995)
14Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’36.8531’25.435 (-11.418)
15Esteban GutierrezHaas1’38.9591’26.189 (-12.770)
16Felipe NasrSauber1’37.7721’27.063 (-10.709)
17Jolyon PalmerRenault1’43.965
18Felipe MassaWilliams1’43.999
19Kevin MagnussenRenault1’44.543
20Marcus EricssonSauber1’46.984
21Pascal WehrleinManor1’47.343
22Rio HaryantoManor1’50.189

Sector times

DriverSector 1Sector 2Sector 3
Nico Rosberg28.308 (3)28.759 (1)22.662 (2)
Lewis Hamilton27.955 (1)29.290 (4)22.519 (1)
Daniel Ricciardo28.347 (4)29.016 (3)22.751 (4)
Max Verstappen28.364 (5)29.010 (2)22.726 (3)
Sebastian Vettel28.267 (2)29.356 (6)22.956 (7)
Carlos Sainz Jnr28.738 (8)29.329 (5)22.932 (6)
Fernando Alonso28.681 (7)29.634 (8)22.896 (5)
Jenson Button28.614 (6)29.802 (9)23.062 (8)
Nico Hulkenberg28.771 (9)29.625 (7)23.343 (10)
Valtteri Bottas28.820 (10)30.004 (10)23.080 (9)
Romain Grosjean30.483 (13)30.913 (12)23.545 (13)
Daniil Kvyat30.448 (12)31.330 (15)23.523 (12)
Sergio Perez30.000 (11)31.840 (16)23.466 (11)
Kimi Raikkonen31.030 (16)30.836 (11)23.569 (14)
Esteban Gutierrez30.512 (14)31.304 (14)24.373 (15)
Felipe Nasr30.972 (15)31.242 (13)24.395 (16)
Jolyon Palmer33.700 (19)38.150 (19)29.629 (19)
Felipe Massa35.621 (21)38.770 (20)28.937 (17)
Kevin Magnussen34.281 (20)37.367 (18)29.562 (18)
Marcus Ericsson35.903 (22)39.711 (21)30.330 (21)
Pascal Wehrlein33.287 (17)36.019 (17)29.775 (20)
Rio Haryanto33.686 (18)41.358 (22)30.391 (22)

Speed trap

PosDriverCarEngineSpeed (kph/mph)Gap
1Nico RosbergMercedesMercedes321.4 (199.7)
2Valtteri BottasWilliamsMercedes320.0 (198.8)-1.4
3Nico HulkenbergForce IndiaMercedes319.6 (198.6)-1.8
4Lewis HamiltonMercedesMercedes319.1 (198.3)-2.3
5Max VerstappenRed BullTAG Heuer318.4 (197.8)-3.0
6Sebastian VettelFerrariFerrari316.9 (196.9)-4.5
7Daniel RicciardoRed BullTAG Heuer316.7 (196.8)-4.7
8Fernando AlonsoMcLarenHonda314.2 (195.2)-7.2
9Jenson ButtonMcLarenHonda313.5 (194.8)-7.9
10Carlos Sainz JnrToro RossoFerrari311.9 (193.8)-9.5
11Sergio PerezForce IndiaMercedes307.1 (190.8)-14.3
12Felipe NasrSauberFerrari306.7 (190.6)-14.7
13Daniil KvyatToro RossoFerrari304.2 (189.0)-17.2
14Rio HaryantoManorMercedes303.3 (188.5)-18.1
15Pascal WehrleinManorMercedes302.9 (188.2)-18.5
16Kimi RaikkonenFerrariFerrari302.3 (187.8)-19.1
17Esteban GutierrezHaasFerrari300.9 (187.0)-20.5
18Jolyon PalmerRenaultRenault300.3 (186.6)-21.1
19Romain GrosjeanHaasFerrari299.0 (185.8)-22.4
20Kevin MagnussenRenaultRenault296.5 (184.2)-24.9
21Felipe MassaWilliamsMercedes292.1 (181.5)-29.3
22Marcus EricssonSauberFerrari291.8 (181.3)-29.6

Remaining tyre sets

MediumSoftSuper-soft
DriverTeamNewUsedNewUsedNewUsed
Lewis HamiltonMercedes102012
Nico RosbergMercedes012012
Sebastian VettelFerrari012012
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari012031
Felipe MassaWilliams102040
Valtteri BottasWilliams012003
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull102012
Max VerstappenRed Bull102012
Nico HulkenbergForce India102012
Sergio PerezForce India102031
Kevin MagnussenRenault012040
Jolyon PalmerRenault012040
Daniil KvyatToro Rosso102031
Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso102012
Marcus EricssonSauber102031
Felipe NasrSauber012031
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren102003
Jenson ButtonMcLaren102012
Pascal WehrleinManor102040
Rio HaryantoManor102040
Romain GrosjeanHaas012031
Esteban GutierrezHaas012031

Over to you

Is this going to be another Mercedes benefit?Can Red Bull fight for the victory in Hungary?

Share your views on the Hungarian Grand Prix in the comments.

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

Browse all 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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21 comments on “Hamilton has to fight from behind again”

  1. Anything could happen, and it probably will!

    We could to with Max or Dan outbraking everyone into T1, ideally.

    1. And then cruise to the flag? That would be exciting, for sure…

  2. Bottas improved 18 seconds in his Q1 time into Q2.

    The Lad :D

    1. The Flying Finn. :D

  3. Fight from behind? he is only second ! :)

    1. @t3x I did a double take on that myself.

      Journalism!!

      1. Yeah I thought click bait was for YouTube only :(

      2. Maybe we already expect him to have a bad start @tx3, @stubbornswiss!

    2. …which is behind Rosberg. What’s your point?

      1. No point, simply that “behind” made me think I missed something and he was starting from far behind, not the first row.

        1. I understand, but to be fair, it’s not like Hamilton is fighting anyone else.

    3. I don’t understand the title either, but it’s dissapointing to see it. It’s like he was the 1st always and there was none other on pole-position. Also I’ve never seen a title “Rosberg will have to fight from behind again”. Must hurt a lot that Rosberg got lucky with his lap yesterday… but hell the championship is not ended so can’t hurt that much… come on!

  4. Hamilton’s sector times are very telling. He has pace over Nico, no wonder he is happy starting 2nd.

  5. It wasnt last year…..no reason to think it will be this year.

  6. “Hamilton has to fight from behind again” It is true but over dramatic maybe. I played Ham for pole so that’s my drama. I’m sad that Palmer wasn’t able to carry his Saturday morning form for a second I though Renault had sorted their issues in the mid season test. I still believe in Jolyon or rather I don’t rate Magnussen at all.

  7. First corner drama. Saftey car deployments. New race winner. Manor in points. COTD or Prediction of the day.

  8. Watch out for Vettel. Ferrari is much faster than qualy pace showed. If you look at the sector times Vettel was doing for Button accidentally got in the way, he’d have easily been ahead of the Red Bulls – definite dark horse for the race

  9. Mercedes now has a moral obligation to let Lewis take the first place.
    I hope justice will be served or Mercedes’ bad sportsmanship will have consequences.

  10. This is some artificial drama made by the FIA, Rosberg did not slow enough and therefore should have lost his pole.
    But deep down Rosberg is giving his everything to win the crown this year no matter what it takes, the contract renewal will boost him anyhow.
    I am really gutted with the FIA decision, it is turning to a joke but a bad one.

    1. The greyst of all areas. There are no rules specifying an exact amount to slow down just to lift which he did. He should be prepared to stop but anyone could argue they are prepared to stop even when flat out if something appears in front of them. Mountain out of a mole hill about this.

  11. I really hope accurate weather predictions will be provided. We can waste hours trying to predict what will happen in the first corner, but if there is a safety car start it’s a completely different ballgame of course.

Comments are closed.