Hamilton keeps Vettel from pole with last-gasp effort

2013 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying

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Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix from Sebastian Vettel in a thrilling qualifying session.

The Mercedes driver claimed his fourth pole position of the year by less than four-hundredths of a second.

Q1

Qualifying took place in sweltering conditions at the Hungaroring with the track surface temperature hitting 50C early in Q1.

Esteban Gutierrez was the first driver to take to the track after Sauber installed a new engine in his car following his practice problems. Fellow Mexican Sergio Perez also required last-minute repairs to his car after practice and was able to get back on track.

However Gutierrez failed to make it any further, dropping out in Q1 for the sixth time this year.

Paul di Resta has missed out on Q2 twice earlier this year due to tactical errors in mixed conditions. He got no further than Q1 again today but this time the cause was a simple lack of performance.

“Where did the the grip gp?” asked a bemused Di Resta after qualifying 18th. Only the Caterhams and Marussias were behind him .

Drivers eliminated in Q1

17Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’21.724
18Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’22.043
19Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’23.007
20Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’23.333
21Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’23.787
22Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’23.997

Q2

Vettel was the first driver to get under the 80-second barrier in Q2, his lap good enough to secure him a place in Q3 without having to use another set of soft tyres.

But team mate Mark Webber was in trouble: an electrical problem stopped the ‘quick shift’ feature from working on his gearbox and deprived him of KERS. Despite the problems he still managed to drag his car into Q3.

The Mercedes pair beat Vettel’s time with their subsequent runs to secure their places in the final ten. But the margin between reaching Q3 and failing was narrow.

Daniel Ricciardo grabbed a Q3 spot with a lap of 1’20.527. He was just two hundredths of a second off Webber’s time, and Perez was the same margin behind him.

Adrian Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg were both within four-hundredths of a second of Perez, but both were on the wrong side of the cut.

Drivers eliminated in Q2

11Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’20.569
12Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’20.580
13Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’20.777
14Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’21.029
15Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’21.133
16Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’21.219

Q3

The Mercedes driver led the way to begin with, Hamilton ahead of Rosberg but both around half a second off their Q2 pace as they began Q3 on used soft tyres.

But Vettel had an extra set of fresh rubber on hand. He looked on course to claim the top spot in Q3 when he lapped eight tenths of a second quicker than his pursuers.

He lowered that mark even further with his final run. But Hamilton found a little bit more, lapping in 1’19.388 to deny Vettel the coveted pole position place by less than four hundredths of a second.

Grosjean had been within range of the top times throughout the session but despite a small mistake at the final corner he didn’t believe he had the pace for pole position. He took third ahead of Rosberg.

Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen will share the third row. Webber did not set a time in Q3 due to his car problems.

Top ten in Q3

1Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’19.388
2Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’19.426
3Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’19.595
4Nico RosbergMercedes1’19.720
5Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’19.791
6Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’19.851
7Felipe MassaFerrari1’19.929
8Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’20.641
9Sergio PerezMcLaren1’22.398
10Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault

2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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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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45 comments on “Hamilton keeps Vettel from pole with last-gasp effort”

  1. Merc train tomorrow like Monaco???

    Lewis has the best chance to win in such narrow circuit. Singapore will be another one.

    1. The Driver-skill Replacement System will help people get past Lewis if his tyres start to go off.

      1. @red-andy HAHA ! well done xD

      2. Current Formula 1 in a nut shell. Can’t wait for the post-Ecclestone era.

        1. are you ready for horner era……….???
          LOL

      3. David not Coulthard (@)
        27th July 2013, 18:13

        COTD.

      4. Seb will probably get past before DRS is even on.

      5. lol @ Driver-skill Replacement System
        That’s brilliant. Comment of the month.

    2. after turn 1 LSH WILL Probable see SEB & GRO in front of him

      i wonder if he will be in shock when it’s happen LOL

    3. It will be difficult for Vettel and Grosjean to overtake Hamilton because Hamilton has a 5.5 and 4.9kph straight line speed advantage over them (and the speed trap is only halfway down the front straight)

  2. Great work by Hamilton. Puts this “schocking pace” comment into perspective…
    Well done Romain Grosjean too. I hops Lotus won’t do a Ferrari trick and change his gearbox so that Kimi gets the clean side of the track. Team orders are ok, but that would be … disgusting. I hope he scores another podium, as his pace throughout FPs and Qualis has been remarkable. He has to survive the 1st corner though…
    I’ll try to keep an eye on the RIC/VER battle too…

    1. why would Lotus does a ferrari trick?? Grosjean has to move out of the way previously because his teammate was on diff strategy and lapping faster.

      1. Grosjean has to move out of the way

        yeah, and wipe away a couple of rivals while doing it so Kimi could have it even easier :)

        1. @klaas Lotus are more concerned over constructors points right now so he’d have to do a spectacular job of it :)

    2. i hope the “dirty” side is not that much of a problem for drivers.

    3. The conditions you are referring to are totally different.
      Alonso was fighing vettel for the WDC and was 10 points only behind in abu dhabi and thus wanted to reduce the gap
      Whereas here we are in mid season,so such things are not expected.
      Even ferrari would not have done it had Alonso not been in contention for WDC.

      1. Its common sense not to compromise your teammate when the strategy was different.

        Merc, rbr, ferrari, Lotus and others have done it so far. Though Merc was weird to stop the faster rosberg from overtaking the slower lewis in malaysia. ROFL

        Its not team order. Its common sense to let your faster teammate through based on different strategy run. Otherwise, no point doing so.

  3. Great lap from Hamilton. You’re the saviour!

    1. @eggry Saviour of what/who? Eggry? Some island in north of mainland EU? ;)

      1. Saviour from people getting 15 out of 19 pole positions in a season ;)

        1. We don’t have that problem this year, actually it should soon be the otherway around, anyone else than Merc getting pole should be cheered :) @svarun

  4. 1 time in the last 9 race in hungry won by pull sitter
    4 time in last 9 race won from the dirty side of the grid

    seb got it in the bag

    1. seb got it in the bag

      Or Rosberg, or Raikkonen, or anyone else who survives Grosjean in the first corner.
      btw, remember the statistics about Vettel never winning in July – didn’t matter too much in the last race…

      1. If Crashjean gets penalized from the floor, then he’s problem only for the Marussia&Caterham, so lets hope so ;)

      2. “anyone else who survives Grosjean”

        haha, brilliant. The ‘first lap nutcase’ hasn’t stuck since suzuka though, has he?

        1. Spa you mean!

  5. What a surprise to see Webber having problems with his RB9.
    With Vettel to far away in the WDC table, Mercedes should really push for the WCC this season, they have a real chance there.

  6. Good job by Grosjean, Lewis done well too, lets see how the tyres hold up tomorrow. Hungary isn’t as hard to overtake as Monaco (though it isn’t easy either) but turn 1 is a good spot as the entry is quite wide. I think that if Mercedes tyres don’t last this is between the Lotuses and Red Bull (Vettel) with Fernando as a dark horse.

    1. I always thought Alonso drove a red horse @pmccarthy_is_a_legend? ;)

      1. lol red horse indeed! @vettel1

  7. Why is it that only Mark Webber’s Red Bulll has problems and NEVER Vettels? This KERS problem for Mark has been going on for more than 2 years now…

    1. @deurmat can you remember all the way back to Silverstone? Or indeed Germany, where Vettel had KERS problems during parts of the race?

    2. The cockpit *could* be slightly different to accommodate MW’s height making KERS packaging more troublesome in high temps (every race for RB).

  8. it would be great for Romain to get past Vettel, hold him up to allow Kimi to get close

  9. MG421982 (@)
    27th July 2013, 16:01

    And if Mercs have a problem with the tyres… it’s their problem !

  10. I really hope we don’t get a situation in which Grosjean has to give up his maiden win. He has been genuinely on the pace this weekend and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him out front at some point tomorrow.

    1. @meander Crashjean will give up his win on his own to either one of the front runners, or if he gets penalized for his new floor, then he gives it up to either Marussia or Caterham drivers :D

  11. Nice Qualy! Lewis went HAM at the hungaroring! Grosjean just made Kimi look slow and SV´s look when it was all over was priceless!!
    ALO once again keeping Ferrari true! I hope he can have one of his trademark starts and get in front of SV so he can add some good points!

    Anybody wanna put some money down on GRO´s start tomorrow?? I predict he takes somebody out!!

  12. Ricciardo continues to impress, reaching Q3 for the fourth time in a row. Toro Rosso didn’t look good in the practice sessions but he keeps delivering for them, and he’s only two places down from Raikkonen.

  13. We should have nothing but respect for all these drivers. I am not against criticizing a driver when he deserves it, but calling them names is not fair. I am a fan of only One driver, but yet I have lots of respect for each and everyone of them. Grosjean made mistakes last season and paid the prize and since then he has been doing his best to be a better driver. Today he did well, so instead of calling him names, we should try to encourage his brilliant quali lap today.

  14. I can see Hamilton immediately attempting to cover Vettel off the line and braking too late into the first corner forcing Vettel out wide, then Grosjean slips up the inside followed by Alonso who got a great start as usual then Rosberg and Raikkonen putting Hamilton 5th and Vettel 6th.

    1. You probably need to put your glasses back on …

      1. Maybe…

  15. AMAZING LAP from Lewis.

    He truly is just the best out there!

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