Lewis Hamilton says he will be relying on strategy to attack the Ferraris in the Hungarian Grand Prix after qualifying fourth for the race.
Hamilton’s championship rival Sebastian Vettel will start from pole position. The Ferrari drivers locked out the front row of the grid after Hamilton, who was quickest in Q2, reported tyre balance problems in Q3.
Hamilton ran wide at turn four during his first flying lap in Q3. His final lap moved him up to fourth place. He will share the second row of the grid with team mate Valtteri Bottas.
Asked how much progress he expected to make from his qualifying position, Hamilton said: “Well you can’t overtake here so it’s going to be most likely a train unless we can do something on strategy.”
Having comfortably beaten Ferrari at Silverstone, Hamilton said Mercedes hadn’t been surprised by their performance around the slower Hungaroring. “Not really,” he said. “We knew that they were quick, they showed it earlier on today. So we were aware of their pace.”
“I don’t know if they’ve made an upgrade or whatever it is. I think we did quite well considering, but the race is on.”
Hamilton goes into tomorrow’s race, the last before the mid-season break, one point behind Vettel in the championship.
Sumedh
29th July 2017, 16:36
I just saw the P3 results and found that all the Ferrari engined cars improved by over a second on their Friday times while other engined cars couldn’t find such improvement.
This could be an engine characteristic and may be critical towards the end of the championship. Mexico and a hot Interlagos could really help Vettel.
altitude2k
29th July 2017, 16:50
He’s not wrong. He even won here in his 2013 Mercedes, which kinda proves that point.
Philip (@philipgb)
29th July 2017, 18:07
I’d say that goes against his point slightly because he had to pull off some pretty daring overtaking to hang on to that win against cars with faster race pace. Same in 2012.
sato113 (@sato113)
30th July 2017, 11:05
‘Hanging on’ to a race by overtaking? Don’t think it works like that
Philip (@philipgb)
30th July 2017, 18:13
@sato113
He started from pole, but needed to make overtakes after his pit stops that were critical in taking the win.
So the win was his to lose, and he persisted to convert the pole into a win. Hanging on is a perfectly valid phrase to use for the scenario. I don’t really need an English lesson on a sports forum, if you’ve anything constructive to comment on regarding F1 itself go nuts, there’s more to life than trying to be a grammar nazi though. Peace x
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
29th July 2017, 19:13
It’s the start or the pitstops where he can make up places, but I think he has to watch out for the Red Bulls in the race. I wouldn’t be surprised if he slips back to 6th place in the race.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
29th July 2017, 19:23
It’s definitely going to be a train, and it depends largely on the start and pitstops. I suppose Hamilton can “easily” be P2 tomorrow by overtaking Bottas at the start and jumping Kimi during the pitstops. However, starting on the dirty side can mean that he could as well slip back a few places.
Martijn (@)
29th July 2017, 19:47
Its only a train if you are not prepared to overtake anyone Lewis..
SteveR
30th July 2017, 1:38
Wonder what Mercedes will do if Bottas gets ahead of Lewis in points. Would Lewis ‘support’ Bottas if push came to shove? Pretty sure of the answer to that one.
Baron
30th July 2017, 6:24
Did he have to do a public appearance or something? Seems like his preparations for this race were compromised.
BigJoe
30th July 2017, 10:29
When Lewis has won this year it’s because of his greatness each and every time. When his not doing so well, it’s the car’s fault.
The madness of judging F1 drivers.