Budapest, qualifying: McLaren front row

Saturday 2 August 2008, 16:41:00 | RF1 Paddock Pass

Saturday . Qualifying . Budapest

Lewis Hamilton seemed unstoppable today as he swept to pole position, while the two ING Renault F1 Team drivers both fared well to qualify in the top ten.

 

 

As the session got underway, the track conditions were even hotter than this morning. This situation caused a few problems with some drivers changing between the soft and hard option tyres in their efforts to find some grip.

First part: Lewis Hamilton ended the first part of qualifying with the best time. The two Ferraris could not respond to his pace. Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet both completed a couple of flying laps which allowed them to proceed through to Q2 without any problems. In the final moments of the session, Jenson Button (Honda) managed to grab 15th spot, demoting Nick Heidfeld (BMW) into the elimination zone along with Adrian Sutil (Force India), Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India), Rubens Barrichello (Honda) and Kazuki Nakajima (Williams).

Second part: Lewis Hamilton made a small mistake on his flying lap, allowing Felipe Massa to set the fastest time in front of Timo Glock (Toyota), who was on great form. Further back, Fernando was in 8th and decided to remain in the pits rather than go for another flying lap. It was a risky move, but in the end he remained in the top ten and proceeded to Q3. Nelson opted to go out again to try and reach Q3, improving his time in the final moments to make the cut. Nico Rosberg (Williams) suffered some hydraulic problems and could not progress any further. He was eliminated along with Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso), David Coulthard (Red Bull Racing), Jenson Button (Honda) and Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso).

Third part: Lewis Hamilton offered no chances to his rivals this time, moving to the top of the times at his first attempt and, although nobody could match his time, he went on to better it at the end of the session. He was in front of his teammate, who recovered after making some initial mistakes on his first flying lap. They were followed by Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica (BMW) on the second row. For the ING Renault F1 Team, Fernando ended the day in 7th and will start from the clean side of the track tomorrow, while Nelson ended the session in 10th.

Comments

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1. Saturday 2 August 2008 at 17:03:26 by clemo

thank you RF1PP, a great effort by both Fernando and Nelson. Since its not reknowned as a great track for over taking do we need to keep our fingers crossed for mistakes from those further up the grid to get some points?

Best of luck for tomorrow.

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2. Saturday 2 August 2008 at 17:09:14 by teomolca

From the time drifference between Q2 and Q3 it looks like McLaren and Kubica might be a bit light. Let's hope it's true.
Go Alonso!

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3. Saturday 2 August 2008 at 17:15:56 by Lengskee

Good LUck Alonso, Piquet and RF1 for tomorrow's race

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4. Saturday 2 August 2008 at 17:55:16 by RF1 Paddock Pass

Hi Clemo, I think I agree with your prognosis. If we are to make much progress in the race we will need something unusual to happen up front: something like a tangle at the first corner. Otherwise I fear we will be fighting for the final points paying positions (7th and 8th).

The Toyotas have shown very well this weekend, especially Timo Glock, and getting on terms with him will be difficult, and Jarno could also prove to be quite a handful. Indeed, I expect this will be the story for the rest of the season as Toyota are probably our main rivals for fourth in the championship.

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5. Saturday 2 August 2008 at 18:20:06 by jijicarter

Is the weather too hot so that most of teams use hard tyres in qualifying. Is R28 suitable for the harder ones as I found the speed was a little slower with softer tyres in Q2?

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6. Saturday 2 August 2008 at 19:32:22 by amc

I'm not exactly thrilled about the Grand Prix tomorrow - never have been about Hungary to be honest considering how processional it always is.

HOwever, we know how things change race by race, so I feel if we can hold position at least, even just get a couple of points compared to webber, overtaking Red Bull for 5th would be a good start to challenging for 4th.

I think with Toyota, they are better in Qualifying than in the race, so their strategies will be interesting tomorrow compared to Renault; Glock clearly light, and Trulli clearly heavy.

I think Renault are a bit like ferrari are now against the respective main competitors; so we need to capitalise on race performance, and hopfully a good strategy - not to gain position perhaps, but certainly to avoid losing positions.

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7. Sunday 3 August 2008 at 00:38:21 by dray

A funny days qualifying really: Nelson didnt have one of his better weekends - as measured by time behind Alonso in each phase of qualifying - yet makes it through to Q3 relatively easily.

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