F1 | Hungarian GP: analysis of qualifying

Among the tortuous curves of the Hungaroring circuit, taking center stage on this Hungarian Saturday is Max Verstappen, the young talent from Red Bull who has finally won his first career pole position. The Dutchman had already come close several times, but at the end there had always been a lack of that something extra to be able to conquer the first place: today, however, Max finally ticked this box too, obtaining a very important result on a track in where the starting position has a significant weight. Behind him was an excellent Valtteri Bottas, just 18 thousandths of a second behind the pacesetter: in this case too, therefore, the fight for pole position gave us a spectacle on the edge of thousandths of a second. It will be a completely new front row: above all, it will be interesting to understand whether Red Bull will have solved the problems related to the software which during the last few races have created quite a few headaches for the drivers of the Anglo-Austrian team at the start.

Third place for the current championship leader, Lewis Hamilton. The gap, in this case, increases up to two tenths accused by the Englishman, who in the post-qualifying session made it clear that the feeling with his W10 was not perfect today. Concluding the second row is Charles Leclerc, the first of the two Ferraristi, albeit half a second away from Verstappen. A significant gap, but already on the eve of the race the Scuderia from Maranello was aware that it would encounter many difficulties, especially on the flying lap. The young Monegasque was also responsible for a small accident in qualifying following a spin at the last corner of the circuit: losing his car, Leclerc crashed his rear into the wall, causing extensive damage to the rear wing and other areas of the car. Behind him was the other Ferrari driver, just under 3 hundredths behind: net of the gap between the two, it is clear that the SF90 couldn't do more than that. Once again Pierre Gasly was only in sixth position, almost 9 tenths away from his teammate. A really heavy gap, especially if you consider that Verstappen managed to take pole position.

Moving away from the top teams, concluding the top ten we find the two McLarens, Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. Even in Hungary, the Woking team seems to position itself as a real contender for the title of best midfield team, overshadowing Renault. As regards the Frenchman, however, it is important to underline how this result means a lot at Haas: Grosjean, in fact, achieved this ninth place with the Australian-specification car, while his teammate, Kevin Magnussen, was excluded in Q2 despite the latest updates being fitted to his single-seater. Tenth position for the Finnish driver from Alfa Romeo, who did well to gain access to the final phase of qualifying thanks to an excellent lap in Q2.

Q1: Leclerc crashes, but the surprise is Russell

The first qualifying heat did not reserve any particular surprises in the upper area of ​​the standings, but the battle to avoid exclusion was quite heated and confusing, especially in the last minutes. As for the top drivers, the most notable episode was Charles Leclerc's spin on the last corner, who after losing the rear crashed into the wall, damaging part of his car. Despite this, the Monegasque managed to get through the session safely, while the Prancing Horse technicians had to deal with their driver's mistake by fixing the front wing and checking that the strong impact against the barriers had not damaged any internal components. In post-qualifying interviews, the Ferrari team principal explained how, despite the intervention of the mechanics in the pits, Leclerc's car was still damaged, in particular in the area of ​​the rear deformable structure, where the light that is activated is also located in case of rain.

As for the fight to avoid exclusion from Q1, the final minutes proved to be somewhat chaotic due to traffic, a factor to always take into consideration on a track as narrow and twisty as the Hungaroring. The culminating episode of this situation was the duel between Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo right at the last corner, with which both ultimately only ended up hindering each other. It all started with the high number of cars present in the third sector, most of them ready to make the last and decisive attempt to avoid exclusion. Of course, with so many cars lined up, it is understandable that each driver tries to gain space from the driver in front by slowing down as much as possible, so that the turbulence coming from the car in front does not negatively influence performance. As can be seen from the image below, a few seconds from the end there were 9 cars present in the space of just three corners, with all the consequences that this can also mean in terms of preparing for the out lap and warming up the tyres. Among the last of this group was also Daniel Ricciardo, one of the drivers at that moment at risk of exclusion: aware of the extreme traffic in front and the possibility of taking the flag thus not being able to start his fastest lap, the Australian just before the last corner he started to accelerate, first overtaking Romain Grosjean, and then attempting the same maneuver on Sergio Perez too. For his part, the Racing Point driver rightly did not take Ricciardo's action well, seeing himself forced to hit the gas earlier than expected in order not to lose his position on the Renault driver. This naturally partially compromised his lap, but it also ruined that of the Australian himself, who will therefore be forced to start from the back of the grid. It will be interesting to understand if the transalpine team will take advantage of the opportunity to replace some components on the car and stock up in case of future needs, given the unflattering list of reliability problems suffered by the RS19.

The real surprise of Q1, however, was the performance of George Russell, the young English Williams driver, capable of coming very close to qualifying for Q2, which he missed out on by only half a tenth. The Grove team is making progress thanks to the latest aerodynamic packages introduced in England and Germany, and, although this is a rather atypical circuit, being so close to the second heat is a sign that can give us hope in terms of growth. This is also a great satisfaction for the Mercedes school driver, who also continues his positive streak in comparison with his teammate in qualifying. In addition to the aforementioned Russell, Perez and Ricciardo were also eliminated from Q1, as well as Stroll and Kubica. Unfortunately, the Canadian from Racing Point, despite the good result last week, was unable to bring out anything more at this stage of the weekend, being forced into yet another exclusion already in Q1.

Q2: Top teams choose average

As often happens, the choice of the top teams fell on qualifying with a compound that was one step harder than their midfield rivals, consequently guaranteeing themselves greater opportunities in terms of race strategy. Going long on a track like this can bring extreme advantages, especially in the case of a Safety Car: the choice of the three teams that are characterizing the championship is therefore understandable, even for purely strategic purposes. According to Pirelli's estimates, the race should end with a single stop, but there are those, like Sebastian Vettel, who hope that the expected high temperatures will affect the tires by moving the race to two pit stops. In the case of Ferrari, however, it is important to underline how the two standard bearers of the Red team used not one, but two sets of medium tires available, as did Gasly, who saved himself from exclusion by just over a tenth and a half .

In this heat, what is especially noteworthy is Kimi Raikkonen's good lap, capable of once again bringing his car into Q3, this time to the detriment of Nico Hulkenberg, less than half a tenth behind. A curious episode regarding the Alfa Romeo Finn concerns the discussion he had with his track engineer regarding the deltas to follow on the return lap, in line with what was estimated according to the data provided on Kimi's steering wheel, but too slow according to the race direction, so much so that a warning even arrived on the wall.

However, this is not a negative 11th place for Nico Hulkenberg, as it will allow him to play with the strategy and choose the compound with which he will start the race: “Starting eleventh tomorrow is certainly not a bad thing. We have some flexibility in terms of strategy with free tire choice. The last lap in Q2 was complicated and the time difference in qualifying is very small in the mid-pack area. It's not a bad day for us and I think we can do well tomorrow,” commented the German Renault driver.

The two Toro Rossos, Antonio Giovinazzi and Kevin Magnussen, were also excluded from the second heat. It wasn't a particularly positive day for the young Italian, who was also given a 3-place starting grid penalty for having obstructed Lance Stroll in Q1: in defense of the Alfa Romeo driver it can be noted that himself had not been warned by the pits about the arrival of the Canadian Racing Point driver, in addition to the fact that the area where the episode occurred is "blind" looking behind him, so it was not easy to notice a car behind him . As for Kevin Magnussen, the negative news is above all for Haas, which is continuing to find confirmation that the updates brought to the track during the season have not given the desired results.

Q3: Max Verstappen takes his first pole

Finally, after a long wait, Max Verstappen manages to conquer his first career position thanks to an excellent lap, in which he finally managed to put together everything that, on the contrary, had not allowed him to achieve this goal before . The young talent from Red Bull finished the fastest lap in 1:14.572, only 18 thousandths faster than the driver behind him, but enough to get a well-deserved and coveted start from the pole. As the partials demonstrate, Max was competitive in all three sectors, but it was precisely in the last one where he was able to make the difference, setting the fastest split time. He was undoubtedly the most consistent throughout the lap and the pole position is the right reward for the work done. It will be important, however, to check whether the problems encountered in recent weeks will recur at the start tomorrow or not: “It was a fantastic day” – commented Verstappen -. “Being on pole for the first time is incredible, it will always be special. We are getting closer to the leaders and Honda is pushing hard, optimizing everything. For us today is a great day, I thank the team, the car was flying! I haven't done any race pace simulations, but lately we've been doing better in the races, so I'm not worried, we just need to get the job done. I didn't realize there were so many Dutch people in Hungary, it was great to see them all in the stands. We are all very close, so it should be an exciting race.”

Second place for Valtteri Bottas, who was good at interpreting the curves of the Hungarian track on this day of qualifying. Pole eluded him by just 18 thousandths, but the duel for final success is still open. The Mercedes driver was in front in both the first and second sectors, where he also achieved the record intermediate time, but lost all his advantage in the last and decisive stretch of the track, the most tortuous one. The big positive difference compared to Verstappen was found precisely in the second sector, where his W10 managed to be more reactive but at the same time smooth in the long corners and in the sequence of "S": "I chased a bit in this weekend” – declared Bottas -. “After practically missing the two free practice sessions yesterday, I only started to get into my rhythm this morning, improving during qualifying. I'm happy with the lap: I got very close to Max, but he managed to stay in front of me for a very short time. I'm here to win, and there are a lot of Finnish fans, so I'll give everything! It will be a good battle." In the second row we will find his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, who in interviews revealed that he did not feel comfortable with the car after FP3, as if the car had changed balance. On the decisive lap, a small case also emerged regarding the fact that the Englishman did not use the DRS in the last area of ​​the track in his final attempt: the Mercede technicians are still verifying why the mobile wing did not open, but the hypotheses are either an error by Hamilton (having pressed the activation button too early) or a mechanical problem, given that on the contrary it had been exploited in the rest of the lap.

Concluding the second row we find the first Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, with a gap that, however, reaches just under half a second. The young Monegasque also paid, albeit minimally, for the impact with the barriers in Q1, which damaged part of the rear of his car. Although the damage seems minimal, essentially concentrated in the area of ​​the deformable structure, this undoubtedly did not help. Leclerc put his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, by a few thousandths of a second, who, even if he does not consider himself happy with his lap, does not even hide what is currently missing from the SF90 to battle with Red Bull and Mercedes on this type of track: “Today was as we expected and confirmed the picture that emerged in the last races: our car performs very well on the straight and is not the best in the corners, and consequently we struggle to safeguard the tires until the end of the round when it comes to looking for time. This is demonstrated by the fact that we are the fastest in sector 1 and then we suffer in the rest of the circuit", were the German's words after qualifying. Lack of load, a chronic problem for this single-seater since the beginning of the season: the updates introduced in the last few races have improved the situation, but not enough to actually worry the opponents.

Concluding the top ten were Pierre Gasly, the two McLarens, Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. For the Woking team it is a very positive result, not only from a purely ranking point of view, but also from a chronometric point of view, given that Norris edged out around 2 tenths of a second from the Frenchman from Haas, the main opponent in the midfield.

The strategies for the race

Ahead of the race, in case temperatures are not particularly high, Pirelli suggests a one-stop strategy, with the soft-medium alternative designated as the fastest on paper. Immediately behind is the medium-hard tactic, which undoubtedly leaves more room for action even in the event of Safety Car intervention. The third option is the one that sees the transition from soft to hard, although considered slightly slower. Unless particularly high temperatures, the two-stop strategy is not taken into consideration, especially on a circuit where overtaking is difficult and track position becomes fundamental.