Hungarian GP: Tough Qualifying for the Team in Budapest

Lewis qualified in P5 for the Hungarian Grand Prix, George missed out on Q2 in P17.

Heat on Friday, cooler on Saturday and a bit of drizzle just in time for qualifying - the conditions at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix covered a wide range and created additional tension in the battle for grid positions.

However, the drops were not enough to ensure wet track conditions at the beginning of qualifying. Accordingly, all the drivers started Q1 on fresh Soft tyres. The track was around three seconds slower at the start of the session than at the end of FP3.

The intensity of the drizzle changed constantly during the session. Just seven minutes before the end of Q1, Sergio Perez (Red Bull) spun and crashed into the barriers, forcing the session to be red-flagged.

After the session resumed, the track dried quickly and more and more drivers were able to improve their lap times. Unfortunately, George was unable to complete his final push lap, which is why he slipped to P17 in the final seconds of Q1 and failed to make it into Q2.

Lewis made it safely into the second qualifying segment in P2. He completed his first run on used Soft tyres before putting on a fresh set of Softs for the second run. Lewis improved slightly on his second attempt in Q2 but couldn't get the tyres into the right window. At the same time, he struggled a little with traffic. Nevertheless, he made it into Q3.

Test Your Knowledge: Hungarian Grand Prix Quiz

Lewis had two sets of new Soft tyres available for the final qualifying segment. He set the fifth-best time on his initial run. However, the team sent him back out onto the track as quickly as possible, as there was another threat of rain.

Lewis made a small improvement on his second fast lap in Q3. Shortly afterwards, qualifying was red-flagged as Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) crashed.

After the session was resumed, there was just over two minutes left to complete a final run. Lewis was second in the queue at the pit exit with a used set of Soft tyres.

The threat of rain and the cool temperatures made for difficult conditions to get the tyres up to temperature and improve the lap time once again, but Lewis and the team still gave it their all. Unfortunately, Lewis was unable to improve and remained in P5.

The team is now preparing for the Grand Prix on Sunday. The race starts at 15:00 local time (14:00 UK time) and the race distance is 70 laps, which equates to 306.63 kilometres.

Solid Start After Practice in Budapest

Lewis Hamilton

It’s been very difficult to find a balance with the car this weekend where it’s not snappy. That has likely been exacerbated by the heat but, even in the cooler conditions today, we still struggled. It was a real challenge to get the tyres working and we couldn’t quite get them to where we wanted. If we had optimised everything, we could have likely gone one tenth or two quicker, but we didn’t have enough to challenge for pole position today.

Tomorrow is forecast to be, like Friday, very warm. That will make it a challenge, but everyone is in the same boat. It will be interesting to see where our speed is relative to those around us. Our long run pace in practice was solid but we will have to wait and see where we fall out tomorrow.

George Russell

We didn’t do a good enough job today. I was unable to put a lap together earlier in Q1 and that had left us vulnerable near the cut-off. After the red flag, we were on track at its most damp and then we didn’t have enough fuel complete a push lap as it was at its most dry. We should have been comfortably through and that is frustrating. We shouldn’t have been in that position though in the first place and that’s on me. We will go through it tonight to understand what happened, what went wrong, and how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

P17 is clearly not where we should be qualifying. We should have a car to battle back into the points tomorrow though. We have shown good speed throughout practice and our long run pace was encouraging. Tomorrow is a new day, and we will see what we can achieve.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

That was a very disappointing Qualifying session for us today. It was a total underperformance from all of us. Losing a car in Q1 is clearly not acceptable. George struggled to get in a solid lap earlier in the session and we didn’t execute the final run at all. That stemmed from a lack of solid communication between ourselves and the driver. We need to ensure we learn from this so that it doesn’t happen again.

Lewis made it through to Q3 but ultimately, we didn’t have the pace to challenge for much more than P5. We were likely a couple of tenths slower than those ahead in normal conditions anyway, but we were struggling to get on top of the tyre temperatures. It was tricky to find the middle ground and that likely cost us a few more tenths. We need to dust ourselves down and come back stronger tomorrow. It will be a long race so hopefully we can create some opportunities.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It was a very frustrating day today. We didn't manage the session well and because of that, George was knocked out in Q1. We will review all the communications to understand how we can learn from our mistakes but ultimately, we weren't joined up and sent the car too early for the fuel we had in the tank.

Lewis finished in a more representative position but aside from the early lap in the damp, the car just wasn't working particularly well in the lower track temperatures. We were struggling with an oversteer balance from relatively early in the lap, which was then getting away from us in the final two sectors. That cost us a lot of time but, even with the car in a better window, it's unlikely that we'd have been troubling any of the top three today.

We've left ourselves with a fair bit of work to do tomorrow. With Lewis, we'll be looking to see if we can get him into a position to fight for a podium. With George, we'll be looking for ways to get him back into the points and hopefully the upper reaches.

2024 Hungarian GP Qualifying Result

1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:15.227
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:15.249
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:15.273
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:15.696
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG	1:15.854
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:15.905
7	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:16.043
8	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:16.244
9	Daniel Ricciardo	Racing Bulls	1:16.447
10	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	1:16.477
11	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas	1:16.317
12	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	1:16.384
13	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:16.429
14	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:16.543
15	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:16.548
16	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1:17.886
17	George Russell	Mercedes-AMG	1:17.968
18	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	1:18.037
19	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:18.049
20	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:18.166

2024 Hungarian GP FP3 Result

1	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:16.098	17
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:16.142	17
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:16.379	27
4	George Russell	Mercedes-AMG	1:16.564	15
5	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:16.639	16
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Racing Bulls	1:16.652	15
7	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:16.661	16
8	Nico Hülkenberg	Haas	1:16.696	15
9	Yuki Tsunoda	Racing Bulls	1:16.744	16
10	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes-AMG	1:16.786	14
11	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:16.803	17
12	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	1:16.804	20
13	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1:16.954	25
14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:17.001	21
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:17.085	22
16	Logan Sargeant	Williams	1:17.168	15
17	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber	1:17.291	15
18	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:17.499	15
19	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:17.507	17
20	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:17.575	16

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