Rosberg on pole after frantic Hungarian GP qualifying

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying

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Nico Rosberg will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole after an incident-filled qualifying that saw Lewis Hamilton caught out by a yellow flag on his final flying lap.

Hamilton was forced to back off on his personal-best lap to avoid Fernando Alonso’s stricken McLaren, but the obstruction was for Rosberg, allowing him to press on and duly snatch pole by two tenths.

It will be an all-Red Bull second row with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen lining up behind the Mercedes, while Sebastian Vettel will start fifth.

Q1

After three sessions of dry running, a sudden deluge around 30 minutes before the start of qualifying changed everything for the teams. With the Hungaroring soaked, the start of the session was delayed, first for ten, then 20 minutes as the Safety Car toured the sodden surface, kicking up impressive levels of standing water.

When the session eventually began, the track was still extremely wet, with more rain beginning to fall as the lights went green. In the rush to set initial laps, the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg went fastest. But with the rain falling hard and visibility incredibly limited, the session was stopped due to the monsoonal conditions.

After a brief delay, the cars were back out on track. Times were immediately quicker. The Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen went fastest of all, but then the session was stopped yet again when Marcus Ericsson aquaplaned off the circuit at turn ten and into the barriers.

With no further rain having fallen, track conditions finally began to improve as Q1 resumed once more. A number of drivers – both Red Bulls, both Haas drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa – took a gamble to switch to intermediate tyres, but Williams immediately regretted that risk when Massa lost control at the exit of turn five and crashed into the left-hand wall, wrecking his car and bringing out the third red flag stoppage of Q1.

There was no doubt that the track was ready for intermediates when the session resumed for the final time. The Mercedes pair wasted no time in lowering the fastest laptimes of the session, but then Rio Haryanto brought out the red flags for the fourth and final time in Q1 when he spun off in an identical fashion to Ericsson at turn ten.

With no time left for drivers to set a time, the session was made official. This left the two Renaults eliminated, much to the frustration of Jolyon Palmer on team radio. Massa, Ericsson, Werhlein and Haryanto were also eliminated.

Drivers eliminated in Q1

PositionDriverTeamLap time
17Jolyon PalmerRenault1’43.965
18Felipe MassaWilliams1’43.999
19Kevin MagnussenRenault1’44.543
20Marcus EricssonSauber1’46.984
21Pascal WehrleinManor1’47.343
22Rio HaryantoManor1’50.189

Q2

Almost an hour after Q1 began, the second session finally got underway. The track was now drying rapidly, but all drivers opted to play safe and stick with the intermediate tyres around the damp circuit.

After the initial runs, Hamilton held the benchmark time with a 1’31.571, with Verstappen only a tenth of a second adrift. Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to take a gamble on dry tyres, switching to super softs with just over half of the session remaining.

Bottas went fastest by almost a second on his first flying lap on the dry compound, triggering the rest of the field to pit for the same. Fernando Alonso briefly went fastest for McLaren as laptimes began to tumble.

The track was continuing to improve rapidly as the chequered flag flew, meaning the advantage was firmly with those drivers who began their final laps at the last possible moment. Rosberg went quickest, but with Hamilton having set his final time, he was now at the mercy of other drivers.

Hulkenberg, Bottas, Sainz and the two McLarens all improved, pushing Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari out into the drop zone. But Hamilton held on by the skin of his teeth in tenth, ensuring he had made it through to Q3. This left Romain Grosjean, Daniil Kvyat, Sergio Perez, Raikkonen’s Ferrari, Esteban Gutierrez and Felipe Nasr all eliminated.

McLaren successfully saw both cars through to Q3 for the first time since they switched to Honda power units.

Drivers eliminated in Q2

PositionDriverTeamLap time
11Romain GrosjeanHaas1’24.941
12Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1’25.301
13Sergio PerezForce India1’25.416
14Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’25.435
15E.GutierrezHaas1’26.189
16Felipe NasrSauber1’27.063

Q3

The final shootout for pole position began with a dry racing line, but plenty of puddles and damp patches off line around the Hungaroring.

After the first runs, it was advantage Hamilton whose 1’20.108 put him almost four tenths quicker than team mate Rosberg. Ricciardo was a tenth slower than Rosberg, but almost lost control on the exit of the final corner.

Rosberg and Ricciardo both improved on their next laps, coming within a tenth and two tenths of Hamilton, respectively, but it not enough to usurp the world champion at the top.

With time expired, Hamilton went three tenths quicker than his own best in the first sector, but was forced to back off in turn nine when he came across double-waved yellows after Fernando Alonso spun his McLaren. Alonso car was cleared by the time Rosberg had arrived in the yellow flag area and pushed on to take pole by a tenth of a second, with Hamilton unable to respond.

Daniel Ricciardo took third spot on the grid, ahead of team mate Max Verstappen. Sebastian Vettel will line up fifth, ahead of Carlos Sainz in sixth. The two McLarens of Alonso and Button lock out the fourth row of the grid, while Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas round out the top ten.

Top ten in Q3

PositionDriverTeamLap time
1Nico RosbergMercedes1’19.965
2Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’20.108
3Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’20.280
4Max VerstappenRed Bull1’20.557
5Sebastian VettelFerrari1’20.874
6Carlos SainzToro Rosso1’21.131
7Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1’21.211
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’21.597
9Nico HulkenbergForce India1’21.823
10Valtteri BottasWilliams1’22.182

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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115 comments on “Rosberg on pole after frantic Hungarian GP qualifying”

  1. Before the usual “Nico was so lucky” comments stream in, I would just like to point out how incredibly lucky Lewis was to even get in Q3 after his mistake on his final lap in Q2 cost him 2.2 seconds, only because Mercedes is so dominant.

    1. @kingshark had Perez got his lap together, Hamilton would be starting 11th. Extremely lucky!

      1. That goes for every driver… it’s how qualifying works.

        1. @ivan-vinitskyy I mean, Perez was particularly slow in sector 2, he made a mistake. Without that, he’d have put his Force India in top 10. That mistake only allowed Hamilton to Q3, that’s what I mean.

        2. No, Hamilton made a mistake and that’s not down to luck “for every driver”.

    2. Nico wasn’t lucky, he had yellow flags and ignored them! He might still be lucky when FIA ignores this incident.
      And how is Lewis lucky, he made a mistake and then compensated with fastest sectors? Wheres luck here?

      1. Hahahaha, how salty!

      2. The “rules”(yellow, double yellow, waved, car on track) whether you think they are right or not, seem to have been respected. Did you watch the replays? Hamilton’s position on track was probably unluckier than Rosberg’s, and Rosberg kept his head — and his lap — together. There’s always a bit of luck that can make a difference to times by two very skillful drivers. Why are you so emotionally upset? That’s motor racing…

        1. Theres footage from Rosbergs onboard and he accelerates out of the chicane despite seeing the Yellows upfront, then has a little lift, and once he gets around the left hander, he gets back on full throttle despite there being further yellows and no Greens

        2. spafrancorchamps
          23rd July 2016, 15:40

          Have you watched replays? It shows clear that Nico ignored double yellow.

        3. Both had double yellows, both should have slowed down to the point where fastest sector would be impossible. Ham did, most behind did too. Ros did not.
          Rules are being broken, Bianchi even died for not slowing down enough under double yellows. The problem is enforcement of the rules. FIA are sleeping!

          1. they are not sleeping, they are hoping everyone else is :) They are lazy, but they know what they are doing :)

          2. Please just take the conspiracy stuff and put it in a box.

        4. Bad decision by the Stewards not to penalize Rosberg. All the other drivers in the same position slowed down, but Rosberg puts his foot down, and gets rewarded. Now when a driver sees a yellow flag he will stop to think, do I floor it, or do I slow? It will lead to trouble in the future.

      3. It seems you’ve had a few too many saltines today.

    3. Or you could say he did enough on his earlier run so fully deserves getting through when others wern’t putting the laps in.

      But obviously certain people will see it how they chose to, as per your post.

    4. + If I saw correctly, there was a lot of traffic in the final sector. Good job!

    5. Nothing to do with luck. He simply didn’t slow down enough on DOUBLE yelows

    6. WillOfTheSupremo
      23rd July 2016, 15:25

      This. Perez, Kimi and Grosjean could have easily put him down to P13 for tomorrow’s race.

    7. +1. Apply the same yardstick to HAM as well.

    8. They are all bloody lucky. I would love to be an F1 driver!

      1. Yeah, me too!

    9. Well obviously if you want to say Hamilton is lucky because he is in a Merc you have to say Nico is lucky to be driving such a dominant car too. So doesn’t that just make it 2 – 1 ;)

      It’s odd that you would come out with such a comment because you basically sum up Rosbergs pole lap. Down in the first sector and used his dominant car to make up for it, difference being when it was Hamilton in Q2 he didn’t get the benefit of his competitors all being removed by a car in the middle of the racing line. So yeah Nico was lucky.

      What I will say is they should just remove the “be prepared to stop” part of the double yellow rules because it is clearly pointless. No one can watch Rosbergs on board and say he was prepared to stop.

    10. I don’t see what luck has to do with cheating?

  2. The highlight for me was watching the onboard shot of Bottas’ first moments on the slick tyres on the damp but drying track. That was superb. They also broadcasted Alonso’s onboard later on. It really showed their skill, so precise, so patient. It was great.

    Sad Alonso’s mistake spoiled the last moments of Q3. It was shaping great for a all-or-nothing shootout between all the drivers on the ever improving track.

  3. Wow, this session was ons of the best sessions this season, races included!

  4. Rosberg set his purple sector two under yellow flags. He cannot get away with that surely?

    1. He got away after what he did on Monaco so no big surprise if the FIA protect him again.

    2. He slowed down as clear as sunshine in the affected area, which has not have to be the entire sector.

      1. you need to slow down under yellows, but he had double yellow where you must also be preparred to stop. Did it look to you like he was prepared to stop at any point?

        1. Yes, at the point where he slowed down, which is a prerequisite to be able to stop.
          If you have a precise, non-ambiguos definition of “be prepared to stop”, coming from the regulations, I would appreciate a pointer. I’m not aware there is one.

          1. If he slowed down how come his sector 2 was a purple?

    3. I saw Rosberg at Canada once, break through a chicane, run off track and retake track position to hold 1st place and the stewards did nothing. I missed the part where ROS lifted, but I am sure it had nothing to do with taking a slower corner entry.

      Hope Lewis gets an honest start tomorrow.

      1. Hey! What about Hamilton’s track limit at british’s grand prix qualification?
        https://wtf.jpg.wtf/4b/13/1468108142-4b13876a66cfa0ded4c77068d22973e2.png What did stewards do with that?

  5. It’s set up for a brilliant race start tomorrow. McLaren and Sainz should be able to hold on for good points. Red Bull can challenge to split the Mercs but who oh who will come out of the first corner first or at all.

  6. Hate what F1 has become. Scared, weak, boring.

    1. @hahostolze You say that after a session where we saw action, drama, a bit of controversy, a fight for pole position, multiple incidents and drivers forced to qualify in full wet conditions?

      1. Yes. Because we also saw drivers being coddled into staying inside for conditions we always used to race in, in the past. Because we saw red flags for crashes that were double yellows until very recently. Because we saw a straight forward quali take two hours because of safety. When in the past, safety was as important, but didn’t require these antics. Yes, I was very disappointed. And even more disappointed that this quali, which does have some merit (as you say), will end up being down to Hamilton vs Rosberg, poor Hamilton getting screwed by dastardly Nico. Yeah. I hate it.

        1. Tell Jules’s parents that you think drivers are being mollycoddled by being prevented from aquaplaning into whatever might kill them.

      2. hes talking about all the red flags (scared), weaker drivers getting handouts (weak), and sessions that go on forever, i assume (boring), with predictable results.

        1. spafrancorchamps
          23rd July 2016, 15:43

          And I could not agree more with him. The red flags were ridiculous, especially the first one. And the amount of drivers that went off, was a complete joke. “Best drivers in the world” they say. Ericsson, Haryanto… Yeah, sure.

          1. the biggest question I have about F1 right now is who is bank rolling erricson (misspelling intentional). Everything else is pretty much apparent –too many cameras keeping people talking/data points.

  7. Why is everybody talking about ignoring yellow flags? Is it so hard to believe that Alonso carried on after his spin and Rosberg was lucky to arrive at the yellow corner after it had cleared.

    1. Flags were out and Ros had no way of knowing Alonso’s car was cleared. Drivers are supposed to respond to flags, not stopped cars. That’s why we’re talking.

    2. @gdewilde

      Check the footage over on the Sky F1 site. He enters a sector with waving double yellow and proceeds to scythe past all the cars which have rightfully slowed down. I’m expecting more analysis of it on the coverage tomorrow but I’m siding with Horner that it’s pretty suspect to set a purple sector under double waved yellows.

    3. Yes that is hard to believe given that Rosberg himself said he saw the Yellows and lifted sufficiently, dispite setting a purple sector because ‘sufficiently’ means just blipping the throttle through a corner. Even though double Yellows actually mean be prepared to stop.

    4. I believe that it doesn’t really matter whether Alonso was still there or moved on by the time Rosberg arrived to the sector, as they yellow signs were still out. Imagine a public road situation, where you are standing in front of the red light, but you cannot cross it just because you see that the road is empty.
      Although onboard footage didn’t show any signs of slowing, telemetry data might still prove there was, compared to his other laps, but it’s hard to argue with a purple sector. I think Rosberg might lose his fastest time and starts from 2nd tomorrow.

    5. Guys, has it not occurred to you guys? Nico will not be penalised, not with these stewards. They and Nico remind me of Trump who said, he could literally commit murder and get away with it.
      Nico may at worst receive a slight pat on the back and then wait for it, next week, we will get a new raft of rulings from the stewards where they say going forward Double Yellow rules have been strengthened and must be adhered to by all drivers.

  8. geoffgroom44 (@)
    23rd July 2016, 15:33

    The thing that I like about all this yellow flag controversy is that ‘bending or manipulating’ the rules are only substitutes for real driving skills. But I bet Nico is praying for sunshine tomorrow because if it rains it just might mean HAM goes surfing past at some stage or another. I just love it when HAM has something to fight against, it really seems to extend him beyond the norm.

    1. it shows his true character. Conversely, when ROS is challenged its something completely different. Two different mindsets, brought up/cultured by completely different environments, as they grew up.

  9. There’s quite a lot to say about this qualifying session.

    First of all, it was started as soon as possible, on a rather wet track. The criticism following the safety car start in Silverstone probably played a role. The result however was one of the more ridiculous sessions for a long time, with no less than 4 red flags. It would have been much better to have postponed the start by an hour, waiting for the rain to pass.

    As a result only 11 drivers qualified for the Grand Prix, the other half of the field being outside 107% of pole. Now there usually is waiver for drivers failing the 107% requirement to start the race. For unclear (and unanounced) reasons, this waiver was already granted to the drivers placed 12-16, as they were allowed to participate in Q2. The waiver has never been used for qualifying before. Now I understand the decision from an entertainment point of view, but it does takes the rules very lightly.

    And then there was the ending, where Rosberg stole pole position while ignoring double waved yellow flags. In Austria the penalty was 3 grid places, so I expect Rosberg to start from 4th.

  10. Lest we forget one year on, double waved yellows (and not single yellows) are there for a very good reason. He wouldn’t have known what was around that corner. Could have been marshals, anything on track.

    Personally, I think it’s a disgrace.

    1. Exactly.

      Having a tiny throttle lift as recognition only shows that you have noticed the yellows, it does not show that you know what is around the corner.

      Now we’ve seen Rosbergs footage, he clear gets on the throttle out of the chicane, despite Yellows being clear up ahead, he then has a momentary lift before the natural lift for the corner anyway, then having made it past the first set of yellows, gets back on throttle, despite there being even more yellows ahead, and no greens to confirm its actually clear.

  11. Rosberg’s lap seems dodgy but when you see the footage, you can see he lifts. If the stewards had an issue with it, surely we would’ve heard of an investigation by now. Granted this controversy has probably been created by the fact there’s no defined speed limit one should slow down for yellows (as far as I’m aware).

    This reminds me of the Vettel overtaking under yellows incident at Brazil 2012. Where the fans see what they want to see, rather than what actually happened.

    1. @davef1 Fans seeing what they want to see, and add to that it’s anti-Hamilton and you got yourself an F1 conspiracy.

      1. I think this is pretty harsh on those of us that are trying to comment on this objectively.

        This was not a yellow flag, it was double waved yellows. I’m pretty surprised with this kind of comment tbh.

    2. Double-yellow flags doesn’t mean lift momentarily. I don’t know why this is hard to grasp. The actions of the other drivers on the track contrasted to Rosberg should highlight this.

    3. This is why F1 is not fair for most part and has tons of wide open rules for interpretation and stupidly inconsistent!

      What the hack is a sufficiently slow down and be prepared to stop… You have set speed limit for a pit lane entry, why the hell they cant have a max speed limit when double/single yellows waved… like VSC periods, and a min delta… for reference…. They are penalizing people almost on personal taste or dicing… Some people do the dodgiest things, and getting away almost scuff free all the time!

  12. That was a rollercoaster qualy session. Alonso robbed us of a tense finish. But I have to say watching the footage again- yes Nico did lift, but the difference here is that these were DOUBLE yellow flags. Not just a yellow. In my eyes I didn’t see Nico being prepapred to stop as RIC and HAM were. But then again Rosberg has shown time and again that he is willing to push the rules in his quest for his maiden world championship. In my opinion Rosberg is willing to do anything to win-whether it be legal or not.

    1. Worst of all, he keeps getting away with it.

      1. @patrickl Could that be, how hard it is to believe for you people, because he did nothing wrong? Because Hamilton fans are the loudest shouters and cannot stand their driver being treated like anything else but a king and everything that touches him is a conspiracy? Because the only thing you guys do is confirm each others thoughts (and then treat them as the truth) rather than look at the actual facts presented to us by the FIA, stewards or whomever?

        I don’t imply Rosberg is without fault, he has made several stupid mistakes in the past few years but so has Hamilton. He might even lose pole today, I don’t care but what I wrote above does not only apply for today. It’s a reoccuring thing that sadly poisens forums all over the place.

        1. a question does not a proposition make. Attacking the ‘fans’ does not a rebuttal make. Diverting the conversation to a ‘conspiracy’ is also a bad habit. Deriding towards a conclusion based on misleading statements is even worse. You should have stuck with the second paragraph.

          I know they don’t teach critical thinking and rhetoric in most public schools, I also had to contend with that, but it really does help keep things a little more sane.

        2. Come off your high horse. I have seen other drivers’ fans, (including yourself when it comes to Vettel) doing exactly what your accusing Hamilton fans of doing. Yes other people step over the line when it comes to being impartial- but like any other sport sometimes people get passionate and emotional which sometimes clouds their judgement. The problem with Rosberg I feel is that in certain circumstances he has gotten away with murder. But then again if you review every driver on the grid I am sure there are offences they have committed that warranted more than a slap on the wrist.

          1. There is a difference in saying ‘Hamilton deserved this pole and Rosberg did not, he only got it thanks to the yellow flags’ (which I believe to be true) and ‘Rosberg is again cheating, and again the stewards are favouring him, and again he’s getting away with everything’. I’m almost surpised nobody has demanded a race ban yet,…

            I have no problem with people being emotional or passionate, I do have a problem when irrationality take over. I agree this is not a treat of only Hamilton fans although I do experience they are the leading experts on the matter. I would also quite surprise me if my own comments have been like this as I do try to be as objective as I can be, and Vettel is hardly my favourite driver (I guess you saw the german flag?).

            Here’s the question, had Rosberg gained places by doing exactly what he did today but Hamilton would still be on pole, do you really believe this would be such a hot topic?

          2. “Here’s the question, had Rosberg gained places by doing exactly what he did today but Hamilton would still be on pole, do you really believe this would be such a hot topic?”

            No, you’re right. Obviously you’re going to get more comments on their driving as they are the championship contenders – the question is whether or not Rosberg should be penalised for essentially treating a double yellow flag zone with the seriousness that it deserves. Why don’t you ask a Marshall about that kind of driving?

          3. @ Porsche- I am an avid follower of this site for years and even though I don’t always comment, according to my observations, yourself and David-A are pro Vettel fans. You could deny to the end of course and there would be no way of proving it conclusively. Regarding the matter of hand. Of course had Hamilton been on pole people wouldn’t be making as much noise in my opinion, BUT, perhaps you miss the subtle detail which is that Rosberg and Hamilton are in a tussle for the world championship. Maybe if Nico had more fans on this site I am sure we would also be getting more pro Rosberg fans. Perhaps when you go on Bild and other German sites you will find more Rosberg bias. At the end of the day some people as I said are more emotionally invested in this than others. Personally I used to be a staunch Lewis fan esp when he came on the scene in 2007 but with time, I’d like to think I have matured and after his meltdown in 2011 it showed me that no sportsman is invincible. Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Senna, Prost, Schumi, even stretching beyond F1 and motorsport other greats like Iron Mike, Tiger Woods (who would have thought) or Roger Federer. They have all been beat, they are not Superhumans and you cannot expect them to perform miracles every time they go out to perform. Such is the cycle of sport and if you really want to expand it, everyday life. When you think about just what exactly is +0.173 between Hamilton and Rosberg? Not really much. So yeah I have learnt to just appreciate the sport (in this case F1) and these athletes, while obviously cheering Hamilton.

          4. This is a public forum, asking people’s opinions and they are speaking their hearths out. what do you expect? a tyre or clutch or turbo pressure analysis by numbers and winds direction and its effects on the aero performance of the cars?

            Be realistic: Forums and these topics are here to drive people visit by talking their hearths out as fans… If you see something unfair happening and it is happening quite frequently, people will raise they font sizes of course!

            Unless those of us engineers, who just wants the numbers, and nothing else, can join Rosberg in his side of the garage… He will love you… :)

          5. @Blazz you are wasting your time answering to those keep blaming fans for their opinions, when they state their personal opinions as they are technical analysts, and free from fandom… How funny people are..

  13. I believe Alan Jones is one of the stewards for this GP. Anyone watching him commentating on Aussie’s Ten channel knows his consistent hate against Hamilton. Smell something fishy.

    1. I never noticed. I did notice he hates giving penalties…

  14. Rain happens. And F1 implodes. Qualy takes longer than the race. Pirelli “wet” tyres are obviously not suitable for wet tracks. The FIA waffles about “road relevance” and puts out four red flags in Q1. TV commentators waffle about the excitement of uncertainty. Bernie exacerbates this, knowing that two hours of qualy allow twice as much advertizing. Whiting plays the game…
    Let’s get a tyre war going and see if Michelin (or anyone else) can show how big a disaster Pirelli have been

    1. @paul-a I’m not a big fan of slandering Pirelli as I’m sure they can provide better tyres than what they have been ordered by the FIA. However their wet tyres being terrible is a consistency ever since they entered the sport.

      1. I’m not a fan of slandering anybody, I’m a true, dedicated, consistent fan of F1 (since the 1950 Silverstone GP…) You say “terrible”, I say “disaster” — we can be co-defendants if Pirelli want to take us to court, but I’m guessing that “the court of public opinion” would back us all the way.

    2. MG421982 (@)
      23rd July 2016, 18:22

      +10000

      Yeah, another very good point most stuff is just BLA BLA BLA: ”The FIA waffles about “road relevance” and puts out four red flags in Q1”. Imagine having all roads closed when it starts to rain a little harder, there a little more snow and ice… so the conditions are “dangerous”. And they keep talking about road relevancy…

  15. I hope it stays as it is and for sure HAM will pass ROS at the first corner, just for fun !!!

  16. I think its absolutely crazy how strict the FIA are being about a car potentially being a few cm’s outside of a white line, but when someone clearly ignore’s the potential danger of hitting Marshals or trucks on the circuit, it gets completely ignored. F1 should be ashamed of itself.

    1. +3!

      and so called technical analysts disagrees all the time in this forum who are free from fandom when it comes to certain people… and hate public opinion they raise a good point if it is benefiting someone they hate…

    2. WhiteKnuckles
      24th July 2016, 20:32

      Simple rule change would clear up yellow flag issue in qualifying – any lap with a yellow does not count.

  17. Alonso scuppering Hamilton’s Hungarian qualifying, Hamilton 1 point from the lead in the championship… I’m getting some major Déjà vu for 2007 here.

  18. It will be interesting to see if the stewards actually investigate any yellow flag infringement, and come out with a statement. I’m not holding my breath though!

    Unfortunately Rosbergs ‘on track’ results are shrouded more and more in controversy. It points to shoddy racecraft, poor sportsmanship, and a bending of the rules, which is also known as cheating. As we have seen, he is enabled in this behavior by his team principles as well as (on most occasions) the race stewards.

    1. Just wants to see HAM Engineers do their honest work and he will do the rest (pass ROS and let lots people down) HAM never relied on Stewards, though

    2. @stubbornswiss shushhhhh man, we have serious technical analysts in this forum who hate perfectly accurate public opinions…

  19. Can anyone answer why were there double yellow flags for a petty spin as opposed to a single yellow flag? And Nico clearly lifted off. He probably lost about 7 tenths from lifting off. Shows how godly Nico’s second and last sectors were with all that traffic too, damn!!

    1. It was because Alonso was parked on the racing line. Potentially extremely dangerous.

      Nico having a very momentary lift might be sufficient for the FIA but its an absolute travesty that this is the case. That section is a section of blind corners, Nico has noway of knowing what is around them and Double wave yellows are much more serious that a single yellow. Despite Nico having a quick lift slightly before he would have been lifting for the corner anyway, he still got back on the throttle after the left hander even though there was further double yellows on the right hand side, and even worse, no Green flags to tell him its clear ahead.

    2. Because Alonso was sat facing the wrong way on the racing line.

    3. Quicksilver, I think that some might dispute the claim that Rosberg’s last sector was “godly”, given that his final sector time was virtually identical to his first run (22.843s on his first run and 22.829s on his second run).

      When you also look as Rosberg’s first sector times, his improvements in that sector were negligible – he went from 28.387s on his first run to 28.377s on his second run. The only sector where Rosberg made a significant amount of time was in the middle sector, where he went from a 28.971s sector time on his first run to 28.759s, the fastest sector time of the entire session.

      It is also being suggested that, since the drivers tend to naturally lift off the throttle at the point where Rosberg lifted off, he actually lost very little time by doing so – it’s been suggested that it was only a tenth of a second at most, which could be argued to violate a technical directive Whiting issued in March 2014 that specified the amount by which the driver is supposed to slow down by in yellow flag zones (by 0.2s under a single yellow flag and by 0.5s under double waived yellow flags). http://www.eurosport.com/formula-1/f1-drivers-face-new-yellow-flag-rules_sto4192654/story.shtml

      Now, it could be argued that it is harder to enforce that directive given that the improving conditions would usually mean that a driver could improve on his times anyway: furthermore, as a directive instead of a regulation, Whiting’s statement is not directly enforceable. Still, I can see why there would be those who would question Rosberg’s attitude towards the situation.

      1. Anon … I’ll keep this short.
        Nico’s middle sector was godly because he lifted for yellows as well! End of!! Go listen to his on board footage. He got Pole! The better driver this weekend out of the two! It’s just qualifying! The race is tomorrow! Why so many sore ham fans! Ham must just hope he doesn’t fumble again with his clutch cos DR is there to pounce and ham will come off second best with the ozzie

        1. Quicksilver… I’ll keep this even shorter.

          Rosberg may be a god to you, but he and all the other drivers are F1 racers to the rest of us.

          End of!!

  20. Double yellows flags means you got to be ready to stop.
    You have to slow down significantly. Nico didn’t do that.
    Rosberg will get away again when bending the rules. Another pathetic FIA judgement.

  21. I don’t understand the complaints about the amount of red flags, the majority of them were for the safety of the marshals to recover a car safely, yeah it was annoying but if one guy can go off in the wet another one could in the same place and the last thing we needed was the chance of a marshal getting hit by another car aquaplaning

  22. Bla bla. Telemetry will show the truth.

  23. Kimi lost out big time in Q2 going from the top to 14th in about a minute. Would be curious to find out who made the decision, and why, to not go for one more hot lap.

  24. Bull Shift. Jules died because the rules encourage them to fly on yellow. Nothing has changed.

    1. I wonder what Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr would have to say about that :)

  25. From Lewis

    “It just needs to be clarified now,” said Hamilton. “Us drivers need to understand the yellow flag situation, because obviously in the way that it’s written is potentially not the way it’s interpreted, either by the stewards or the drivers.
    “So more clarification would be good. For me there was no question I had to lift, because Fernando was on the track.
    “Perhaps for Nico, Fernando had cleared, but there were still flags, so it was a different scenario.”
    “When it’s a yellow flag it says you have to be prepared to slow down, or you have to slow down, and lose some time.
    “If it’s a double yellow – there could be a car on the track, there could be a steward on the track, you don’t know what’s around the corner – you have to be prepared to stop, that’s what it says.
    “Nico only lost a tenth through the corner, so if that’s what we’re really allowed to do in the future, even though you lift and approach the corner with due care, if that’s allowed on double yellow…
    “Because I thought that was the case on a single yellow, but maybe on a double, I thought you had to pay more caution to it.
    “So if it’s only a tenth that you have to lose, that’s now different for all us drivers, we have to approach it potentially differently.
    “But I’m not sure that’s the safest approach. We’ve instances in the past – I seem to remember Maldonado nearly hit a marshal in Monaco one time, because he hadn’t slowed down enough, and there was a marshal on the track.
    “It’s really to make sure that it’s very, very clear to us. It’s not particularly our safety, it’s if there’s a car, a driver on the track, or a marshal.”

  26. How interesting the Rosberg controversy may be, I hope the FIA at least sticks to its own, very clear rules on the grid.

    This article 35.1 from the Sporting Regulations:
    During Q1, any driver whose best qualifying lap exceeds 107% of the fastest time set during that session, or who fails to set a time, will not be allowed to take part in the race. Under exceptional circumstances however, which may include setting a suitable lap time in a free practice session, the stewards may permit the car to start the race.
    Any driver accepted in this manner will be placed at the back of the starting grid after any other penalties have been applied.
    Should there be more than one driver accepted in this manner they will be arranged on the grid in the order they were classified in P3.

    The following drivers did not set a time within 107% of the fastest time in Q1:
    Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Nico Hülkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Jolyon Palmer, Felipe Massa, Kevin Magnussen, Marcus Ericsson, Pascal Wehrlein, Rio Haryanto

    Note that the rule doesn’t not take into account why a driver was outside 107% (in other words, the ‘why’ is irrelevant).

    All those drivers thus should line up from place 12 onwards in Practice 3 order.

    1. MG421982 (@)
      23rd July 2016, 18:28

      Eheeeee…….

      1. The is obviously made for if you are already at the back of the grid in q1 and have no chance of being in q2…

    2. This is the one time i hope the stewards are wildly inconsistent….

  27. Unconfirmed chatter that Rosberg called to talk to the stewards…

    1. yeah its true… well lets see what happens

    2. @tdm Yes… have seen this as well. Not holding my breath, though!

  28. @Leo B Hmm….. very interesting. Obviously the FIA has really gotten mixed up/messed up with their rules, how they are interpreted, and how they are applied. Unfortunately this has given some drivers and teams an opportunity to exploit the situation and get away with all manner of infringements.

    We shall see!

      1. Well, let’s see how it all ends. It’s now over 5 hours after the end of qualifying and the FIA has not publiced the official result or a prelimenary grid yet.
        Rosberg is now in the clear and I suspect the drivers outside 107% will be too. I’m just curious what heavy rule bending will be necesaary to accomplish that.

  29. Cheating and breaking rules come standard in the WWE on wheels. What else does anyone expect? It’s all for the show. So cheat away Rosberg, I’m sure you’ll be champ soon.

  30. Can someone please explain to me why double yellow was waived when Alonso lost control of his car?

    I thought double-yellow is only waived when there are marshalls and/or a recovery vehicle on the track.

    1. He had stopped partially on the track if someone was going quickly it could be a huge accident

  31. Rosberg simply isn’t good enough to beat Hamilton and saw the only opportunity to get ahead of him by ignoring the yellow flags and it worked. He played the game just like Schumacher did many a time and got away with it. Let’s hope the FIA apply the correct punishment. If not you have to say Rosberg has got it right for him.

  32. Another driver would’ve been punished for a purple sector 2 under yellows.

    But it’s okay can keep if it makes feel like he’s great.

  33. The best quali for McLaren-Honda hidden by that (yet again…) Rosberg controvercy!
    Hope the boys hang on tomorrow and bring home some good points.
    Today Hungary and tomorrow the world! Muahahahahah

  34. If the FIA would just clarify the rule it could easily sort this out:

    “In qualifying if a driver encounters a double waved yellows section their laptime will not be counted.”

    This removes the temptation for drivers to merely pay lip service to the rule as Rosberg did here. They might as well back right out of it, which then brings the intended behaviour.

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