Yahoo Autos Mercedes' George Russell Stuns F1 Field with Pole for Hungarian Grand Prix
It has taken 13 Grands Prix this season, but Mercedes—the reigning eight-time Constructors' Champions—are back on top of qualifying in Formula 1.
The Silver Arrows of Mercedes struggled through Friday practice as they ran further set-up experiments to understand its W13 but come Saturday afternoon in Hungary a beaming George Russell was celebrating the first pole of his career.
“For us as a team it’s massive,” said Russell. “Yesterday was probably our toughest Friday of the season, we were all here late scratching our heads, morale was pretty down, and we felt pretty lost.
“To come back and grab pole 24 hours later it’s just such a feeling. I know what we went through last night. It was a disastrous day, we think there were many reasons why, they added up to make us over a second off the pace. There’s no points for qualifying but I guess given this result for all us it’s pretty huge.”
Russell was renowned at Williams for executing strong qualifying laps in sub-par machinery, most notably last year in Belgium and Russia, where he dragged the ninth-best car to second and third on the grid respectively in mixed weather. This year has been harder, with Mercedes often rooted in no man’s land between the leaders and the midfield. But on Saturday all the stars aligned.
“We nailed today 100% and got every last bit out of it,” said Russell.
“It’s clear we’ve had a difficult season as a team, qualifying has been one of my strengths historically, this year I’ve struggled a little bit, I’ve always loved it here [in Hungary] and been fast here. I knew if me and the car worked together there’s no reason we can’t achieve great things. This is a huge day for us.”
Russell will be joined on the front row of the grid by Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who panned his Q3 lap as “nothing special,” while 2022 pole king Charles Leclerc was an atypically subdued third, admitting he “struggled massively” with tires in the final shootout.
It was nonetheless a bittersweet day for Mercedes. and a very bad one for Red Bull Racing.
Lewis Hamilton, who has a supreme record around the tight and twisty Hungaroring, will start only seventh after suffering a DRS problem at the end of Q3.
“It is huge for the team, we don’t know where the pace all of a sudden came from, it came from nowhere, that’s a huge positive,” he said. “I’ll do what I can tomorrow to support him, he should be able to win from that position at this track, and I’ll try and work my way up.”
World Champion Max Verstappen, who leads by 63 points, will line up only 10th, with teammate Sergio Perez 11th.
Verstappen locked up on his first Q3 push lap, leaving him only seventh, before a power unit problem manifested itself as he prepared for his final hot lap.
Verstappen was shuffled down to the foot of the top 10, unable to set another competitive time, and will enter Sunday in damage limitation mode.
“I just had no power exiting the pit lane on that final run,” he said. “The engine was running but there was no release, and that is painful.
“[The race is] going to be a bit tough for me but anything is possible. I think a lot of Sundays have already shown that this year, but around here it is hard to pass. We will stay patient and see what happens.”
F1 Hungarian Grand Prix
Qualifying Results
George Russell, Mercedes
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Lando Norris, McLaren
Esteban Ocon, Alpine
Fernando Alonso, Alpine
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren
Max Verstappen, Red Bull
Sergio Perez, Red Bull
Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo
Kevin Magnussen, Haas
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
Mick Schumacher, Haas
Yuki Tsunoda, AlfaTauri
Alex Albon, Williams
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri
Nicholas Latifi, Williams
