Rosberg has won pole for tomorrow’s Hungarian GP 2016 in a rain hit qualifying session that experienced huge delays due to numerous red flags in Q1. Hamilton was on his way to winning pole when Alonso spun in the final runs of Q3, forcing the world champion to back down as he was right behind the McLaren, Rosberg upped his pace and topped his teammate’s time to win the session.

Alonso had been fastest in Q2, after switching to supersoft tires – McLaren qualified both cars throughout the three sessions.

Hungarian GP 2016 Qualifying Results

1. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes
3. Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull
4. Max Verstappen – Red Bull
5. Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari
6. Carlos Sainz – Toro Rosso
7. Fernando Alonso – McLaren
8. Jenson Button – McLaren
9. Nico Hulkenberg – Force India
10. Valtteri Bottas – Williams

The Hungarian GP 2016 marks the 32nd edition of this race which happens to be one of the oldest Grands Prix in history. First held in 1936, the Hungarian GP has been part of the FIA Formula 1 calendar since 1986. Both Hamilton and Michael Schumacher have the highest number of wins at four while McLaren leads the manufacturer category with 11 wins, followed by Williams F1 with 7 wins.

Today’s qualifying session was delayed due to heavy rains, yet another Grand Prix weekend that suffered unprecedented rainfall. 10 more minutes were added to the delay as there were no signs of a driveable track.

Earlier on, Hamilton had been fastest during FP1 on Friday before spinning out in FP2 where Rosberg set the fastest time. The German went ahead to top the timesheet in FP3 today with Verstappen troubling him in second.

Like the previous races, FIA has issued a zero tolerance notice on drivers who exceed track limits at the Hungarian GP 2016. Failure to observe track limits on turn 4 and 11 will lead to a drive-through penalty.

At exactly 14:20 local time, Q1 action kicked off, all cars were set free with no one wasting time in the garage as more rainfall was expected. Weather forecast reported there would be more rain in five minutes after the start of Q1.

Massa was the first to set a time on 1m43.999s, which was quickly beaten by both Force Indias of Perez and Hulkenberg. Mercedes meanwhile backed off due to heavy rain and were slower than leaders, Vettel confirmed heavy rainfall over the radio and the session was flagged immediately.

The top ten after the red flag were Perez, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Nasr, Ricciardo, Bottas, Verstappen, Grosjean, Vettel and Palmer. Rosberg and Hamilton occupied the 19th and 20th places respectively.

The session restarted again at 14:40 and this time Hamilton and Verstappen were on the front line ready to use the remaining 13 minutes. Shortly before the restart, Hamilton reported, “There’s quite a lot of smoke coming out of my right radiator.”

Verstappen’s time was faster than the Force Indias, Ricciardo was even faster but the session was red flagged again this time due to a heavy crash by Ericsson who hit the barriers. The Sauber man walked out unhurt.

After that short stint, the top ten were Ricciardo, Verstappen, Perez, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Nasr, Hamilton and Bottas. The session restarted again and everyone was still in full wets,

After restart, there was more drama as Hamilton locked up at the top chicane and straight into the gravel trap. The red flags were brought out again this time by Massa who crashed his Williams, the clock stopped at 5:20.

Q1 resumed for the final time and it was Alonso who headed the pack this time, fastest times came from Hamilton and Rosberg before Haryanto crashed bringing out the red flags AGAIN.

So the final top ten after Q1 were Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Grosjean, Sainz, Kvyat, Raikkonen, Nasr and Button. And out in this session – Palmer, Massa, Magnussen, Ericsson, Wehrlein and Haryanto.

Intermediates were the choice for the drivers as Q2 got underway, Vettel was the first to set a time on 1m34.137s but was quickly beaten by Sainz in the Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso. A series of fast times was set by Rosberg, Hamilton and Ricciardo in that order. While Bottas stopped for a set of supersoft tires, Hamilton beat Ricciardo’s time to go fastest. Verstappen meanwhile went faster and settled in P2 as Ricciardo made a stop for supersofts too.

All drivers eventually dived in for supersofts including Hamilton, on the new tire, Alonso was clearly flying as he set the fastest time beating both Hamilton and Rosberg who were second and third. When the chequered flag flew, times began to roll in with Raikkonen going fastest, later beaten by Sainz.

The order was shuffled like a pack of cards, Raikkonen was eliminated during that fuse, and Verstappen was the eventual winner of the session. Hamilton barely made it to Q3 after dropping all the way to tenth.

The top ten in Q2 were Verstappen, Rosberg, Ricciardo, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Vettel, Button, Bottas, Sainz and Hamilton. Grosjean, Kvyat, Perez, Raikkonen, Gutierrez and Nasr were all eliminated in this session.

Q3 kicked off with a set of fastest times by the Mercedes-AMG drivers, with Rosberg posting a 1m20.499s which was later beaten by Hamilton with a 1m20.108s. Alonso spun in his final run forcing Hamilton to back off, Rosberg thus claimed top place from his teammate in that stint.

Top ten order after Q3 resulted to Rosberg, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Vettel, Sainz, Alonso, Button, Hulkenberg and Button.

Previous articleWEC 6 Hours of Nürburgring 2016: Free Practice 3 Report
Next articleMercedes-AMG R50 Hypercar Coming Next Year, $2 Million+ Price Tag

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here