Qualifying report
Hungarian GP: Top 10 drivers quotes after qualifying
Nico Rosberg today took his 26th career pole position - his second at the Hungaroring Circuit and fourth of the 2016 season so far.
Photo by: XPB Images
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 1'19.965 | |
| "That was a pretty exciting qualifying session. It was crazy conditions in the beginning with all the rain and the big puddles and a lot of cars went off. My car felt very good in the wet - but when it dried out that was the best situation for us as we know the Red Bulls are strong in the wet. I gave it everything at the end of my last lap and it worked out. A big thanks to the team, as it was a great team effort to make sure I always had good track position. It's a great feeling to be on pole here in Hungary. Tomorrow it will be a big battle against Lewis and the Red Bulls, so I look forward to that." | |||||
| 2 |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 1'20.108 | 0.143 |
| "I would never have expected to come around that corner and see Fernando facing me! I was four tenths up at that point and feeling really happy with the balance of the car, so pole was there for the taking. But this is racing and I'll do my best from second. A great start would help - it's about time I had one! In practice I felt like I was getting the procedure right, so I'm really hoping to finally get a good one off the line tomorrow. It's a long run to turn one so there's opportunity there and that could make all the difference. My long run pace this morning was pretty good, so hopefully it's going to be a good race." | |||||
| 3 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull | TAG | 1'20.280 | 0.315 |
| “When I saw Fernando had spun in Turn 9, I was furious as I was up on my lap by quite a bit and when I heard Nico’s pole time, then the time was definitely there. How affected him or Lewis were (by the yellow flag), I don’t know, but I think we had better than a 19.9 in us. We don’t get many opportunities to get a pole from Mercedes, but I thought today there was definitely a chance. But, the positives are that we were quick, we had good pace and I was happy with the car. I was happy with it yesterday and I think we found even more speed for today, so hopefully that means good things for tomorrow. It was fun with the changing conditions, I really enjoyed it; let’s say I embraced the conditions from the start. It was crazy, there was aquaplaning, spray, it was really hairy and the adrenalin was flowing. It was drying very fast and we had to adapt and be on it, it was cool.” | |||||
| 4 |  Max Verstappen |
Red Bull | TAG | 1'20.557 | 0.592 |
| “It was a bit of a shame in Q3 because everyone was backing off so I also had to back off to get a free lap. If you are within two or three seconds of the car in front you will lose lap time, in qualifying especially you don’t want that. I was very unfortunate to miss the line by 0.8 seconds, but there was a yellow flag anyway so I couldn’t improve. We can be very happy with 4th after a very tricky qualifying. It’s always a bit of a gamble when conditions are like that so you can’t really show everything you’ve got. We had the speed to qualify higher, I feel, but today it wasn’t to be. During the race I hope we can go a few steps further and be close to Mercedes, the pace is there for sure and think it will be very exciting. If they have some issues with degradation then there will be opportunities. In FP3 the car was very comfortable, if we can keep the same set up in the race tomorrow I can hopefully fight hard.” | |||||
| 5 | Sebastian Vettel |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 1'20.874 | 0.909 |
| "I am not happy with P5, because it could have been better. It was quite a mess at the beginning to get through, then at the end I think we had a good performance in the car. We improved for this afternoon, but unfortunately the result doesn't show it. The pace was there, but we were not able to get the lap. It's a shame because in the end it was very good, I think it was already half a second down, then there was a yellow flag which caught us out, but we kept going. Then there was a bit of traffic, sometimes it is just like that. I think we have the pace to compete for the podium tomorrow, hopefully we'll have a good start then we'll go from there. It's a long race, anything can happen here. Other than that, I think that in the race pace usually we are quicker. Usually all the people decide to do the fastest strategy possible, but there's always something you can do. If the occasion comes up to do something smart I know we have the people on board to do it, so I trust them." | |||||
| 6 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |
Toro Rosso | Ferrari | 1'21.131 | 1.166 |
| “Wow, what a qualifying session, and what a result… I feel so good! If I say the truth, this morning we thought we wouldn’t even make it into Q3 after seeing our pace in FP3 but suddenly in Quali everything turned around. I felt much more comfortable in the car and surely the rain and cooler conditions helped. It was probably the toughest qualifying session of my career – to judge each time what tyre to choose, which line to take, see where it was dry and where it was still wet, to cool the tyres, then heat them… It was very, very tricky! But we were in the right place at the right moment every time, we got through every Quali session and we ended up in a great position for tomorrow! I just hope that in the race we can maintain the good feeling we found today in Quali.” | |||||
| 7 | Fernando Alonso |
McLaren | Honda | 1'21.211 | 1.246 |
| “Both McLarens are in the top 10 in qualifying for the first time in a long time, so it’s definitely a step forward for us again this weekend and I’m happy with the direction and progression the team is heading in. I especially enjoyed the tricky conditions in Q2, when we were very fast. Today we were quick in dry conditions, quick in the wet and even quicker in mixed conditions. On the dry tyres in mixed conditions we took some risks and I really enjoyed it. It’s looking good this weekend, this circuit suits our car a little bit better, and I’ve been P7 in every single session so far, so we’re pretty competitive, and hopefully we can improve on that tomorrow.On my final lap I braked very late into Turn Six, cut the chicane and lost some time there, so I wanted to recover the lost time. I probably overdrove and at Turn Nine I spun. It’s a bit frustrating because I think we could have gained a couple of tenths which I lost instead because of my mistake, but anyway P7 for tomorrow is okay, and I’ll be starting on the clean side of the track. We now need to finish the job tomorrow, hopefully with some points.” | |||||
| 8 | Jenson Button |
McLaren | Honda | 1'21.597 | 1.632 |
| “The car was working well today in the mixed conditions. You always enjoy it when you’ve got to think on your feet and it’s different every lap - I think Fernando and I are both very good at that. I was definitely up on my last lap by a few tenths but I don’t know if it would’ve made any difference at the end anyway; obviously the yellow flags meant we couldn’t complete it and sometimes that happens in these conditions. It’s pretty good to have both cars in the top 10 but as soon as you do that, that’s not enough and you want more. I’ll be starting on the dirty side of the track tomorrow, which will be tough, but we’ll make the best of it. There’s new asphalt here though, and with the rain today it might actually make it a bit better than we think. We’re in front of all the cars we should be racing which is good, but the others in front are too fast for us. In the wet it was really difficult to get the tyres working; I particularly struggled with fronts. We had a small front wing problem, where something came loose, but we fixed that and then it was fine. We still struggled with the front end in the wet conditions but we got there in the end, and in the drying conditions it was a lot of fun and we got the best out of it. We’ll start P7 and P8, which isn’t too bad. In these conditions we always do a good job, so I’m happy for the team. I really don’t know what to expect tomorrow – but I’m looking forward to it anyway!” | |||||
| 9 | Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India | Mercedes | 1'21.823 | 1.858 |
| “Being in the top ten is always good, especially in a session with tricky conditions. As a team I think we coped well with so many red flags because it’s important to stay calm and maintain your rhythm. When the rain stopped, the track dried so quickly and by the end of Q2 the sun was shining and the track was almost completely dry. Q3 was a bit difficult: I just didn’t have the balance and I struggled with understeer on my final lap. So from that perspective maybe it would have been better if the track had stayed wet for longer. Ninth place is still a good place to start and I’m sure we can have a strong race from there.” | |||||
| 10 |  Valtteri Bottas |
Williams | Mercedes | 1'22.182 | 2.217 |
| "It was a really tricky qualifying session today because of the weather conditions. I think as a team we made the right strategy calls. It’s a shame that we are out of position because of the yellow flags on my final run. I was improving my laptime a lot, but obviously I had to slow down which cost us, so that’s slightly unlucky. I think tomorrow we will have a good fight with Force India and my mission is to beat them." | |||||
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