Hamilton stops Ferrari's dominance with pole

Lewis Hamilton scored an unexpected pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday after an intense qualifying session at the Hungaroring. His fast lap of 1:35.658 in the final round of knockout was .26 of a second better than runner-up and teammate, Valtteri Bottas. It was Hamilton’s 77th career Formula One pole, his fifth this season and his sixth at the Hungaroring. Despite looking strong the entire weekend, Ferrari drivers handed the front row to Mercedes but secured the second one with Kimi Raikkonen on third and Sebastian Vettel on fourth.

"It’s a great feeling to lock out the front row, particularly with the tough weekend we’ve been having," says Hamilton.

"In the dry, I thought I would be lucky to get third, fourth or maybe even fifth, as Ferrari have been quicker than us and Red Bull were fast too. But then the heavens opened and I knew we were in the game. The rain levelled the playing field and gave us that opportunity to make the difference. I’m really proud of my team, they did a great job today and brought their A game.

This has been a good track for me for years, but for some reason the last couple haven’t had that extra sauce that helps me get ahead. If it’s dry tomorrow, it’s all about positioning, as it’s so difficult to overtake here. It’s a long run down to Turn 1 so we have got to try and make sure there’s no space to get by."

Qualifying took place under treacherous conditions, with a wet racetrack forcing drivers to start on the intermediate tire. However, the track dried enough to allow a switch to slicks, with drivers utilizing the ultrasoft tire for a brief window in Q1 before rain returned and eventually inundated the track. Drivers went back to intermediates in Q2 before switching to full wet tires for the remainder of qualifying.

Qualifying results: