BUDAPEST: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton will start from pole position for the fourth time this season, and third in a row, after setting the fastest time during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix here on Saturday.
The British driver sounded stunned when his team announced over the race radio that he had beaten three-time defending Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel.
“I was really surprised to get pole,” Hamilton said at a media session. “I was expecting Sebastian to get it and it didn’t even feel that great a lap. We’ve brought some upgrades this weekend and the guys have been working incredibly hard.”
The track temperature on the Hungaroring circuit reached 50 degrees Celsius, and similarly stifling temperatures are expected for Sunday’s race.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber did not make a run in Q3 because of a problem with KERS and will start from 10th.
Vettel moved to the top in Q2 with Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton close behind. But a late run saw both Mercedes take the top two places.
In a frantic last minute, Sergio Perez, Mark Webber and Felipe Massa made it through to Q3.
Meanwhile, former champion Jenson Button missed the cut for Q3, finishing in 13th.
Force India witnessed a bad day in office as Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta had to settle for 11th and 18th positions.
While Sutil managed to make it to Q2, di Resta was eliminated in the first session.
Sutil clocked 1:20.569s in Q2 but it was not enough to book his place in the Q3. Di Resta, on the other hand, had to bid goodbye in the first qualifying race after setting a poor timing of 1:22.043s.
It will be the second time this season that Force India will not start the race in the top 10.
Sutil, who clocked 1:21.471 and 1:20.569 in Q1 and Q2 respectively, said it was tricky initially and he was happy with his performance.
“The first part of qualifying was quite tricky and it was difficult to deliver the pace we expected. I had a good feeling with the car, but we were not especially quick and I was only P15 by the end of Q1,” Sutil said.
“I did not really know where we were losing out, but the team made some adjustments and that improved things for Q2. My lap times were much better and for a while it looked like I was going to make the top ten, but then I got pushed down to P11 at the last moment.
“I’m happy with my lap and that was the limit for me today. P11 is a good place to start because it leaves us with more of a choice about the tyre strategy. The goal tomorrow is to push forward and try to score some points,” he added.
Di Resta said it was tough but vowed to come back strongly in the race.
“A tough session and I am a bit confused as to why we struggled so much on the soft tyre. Throughout all the sessions we’ve looked more competitive on the softs, but in Q1 they just didn’t switch on,” he said.
Vettel said of his day: “There wasn’t much missing, so Lewis did a good job, put a strong lap in.
“I was pretty happy with both laps. I was losing out a little in the middle sector; maybe I wasn’t aggressive enough. But in the end I was happy with my lap but it was just not quick enough.
“Lewis did a good job as you can see from the gap to Nico, you have to respect that.”
Alonso, who came through with the fifth fastest time, said: “It was a little miracle today to be fifth. It’s a track that has been historically not so good for Ferrari with these slow-speed corners, need for traction.
“And to be a little bit closer to the pole position is good news, especially after the 10th on the grid in Silverstone, eighth in Nurburgring.” (Agencies)