Hamilton dominates qualifying and takes pole

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

All through qualifying Lewis Hamilton never appeared to be under any threat and secured pole position for the Hungarian GP with easy. Romain Grosjean will start aside of him in the Lotus while teammate Jenson Butotn qualified in third place.

Qualifying today is held under sunny skies at 30°C while the track is a blistering 44°C. This bodes well to offset Pirelli's conservative tyre choice to bring soft and mediums to this track. Last year it were the super soft and softs that were raced in Hungary.

Romain Grosjean is the first man out on track, opting for a run on the harder prime tyres. The two Force India cars the came just behind him both set a faster time, as well as Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn improved again a few minutes later on the same tyres to 1:22.689.

8 minutes into the session, Massa and Hamilton both messed up their laps and consequently backed off to create some clear track ahead of them. With such a short circuit, keeping out of traffic may be crucial for a good qualifying position.

2 minutes later, MAssa is up to 2nd, ahead of Senna who is clearly feeling well at this circuit. About 10 seconds later Hamilton posts the best time while Alonso improves only to 12th.

Another 4 minutes later, Hamilton improves again to 1:21.794, still running on mediums. Senna moved up to second, ahead of Raikkonen, Vergne (options), Webber, Grosjean, Vettel, Masas, Schumacher and Button. Championship leader Alonso is only 16th.

3 minutes from the end, Alonso gets into second place on option tyres. Rosberg gets into third on options as well.

It seems like almost everybody is going out on options in the final minutes. Button gets on options as well to move up into 3rd. The last man in trouble is Kobayashi in 18th. He starts a single attempt on options 10 seconds before the chequered flag but eventually makes it to 15th.

Webber and Vettel are 16th and 17th. Both got out on options but before starting their flying laps the team called them in again as they were confident it would be enough for a place into Q2. Eliminated are therefore Ricciardo, Kovalainen, Petrov, Pic, Glock, De La Rosa, Karthikeyan.

In Q2, the Mercedes AMG cars are the first out on track. They are however soon followed by Massa, Vettel, Grosjean and many others. Hamilton is one of the last men to go out.

Button keeps on locking his front tyres but appears to have found some more pace after the team added some downforce on his front wing. 7 minutes into the session, Raikkonen is on top of the times, ahead of Grosxjean, Button, Hulkenberg, Massa, Vettel and Webber. The latter went wide through turn 4 on that attempt and moved up into 2nd place on his next lap.

Past the halfway mark, Hamilton completes his first lap on options during this qualifying session and immediately goes fastest with 1:21.060. Jean-Eric Vergne only went out when most cars were getting ready for their second run. Vergne's attempt put him into 13th.

3 minutes from the end, Massa is the first to cross the line on a new set of options. He moves up from 6th to 2nd. Alonso also seemingly gets out of trouble and moves up to 3rd, less than a tenth behind his teammate. Webber made two attempts and is unable to improve enough to stay out of the danger zone. After both Williams cars improved, this meant the Australian is eliminated.

Michael Schumacher is out as well as he had to lift due to the dust the Pastor Maldonado left out on track. The Venezuelan himself though improved to 3rd one lap earlier. While this obviously disappointed Schumacher, Nico Rosberg is also eliminated and jumped angrily out of his car once into the pitbox.

So, Webber is 11th, ahead of Di Resta, Rosberg, Pérez, Kobayshi, Vergne and Schumacher.

Nico Hulkenberg commences the track action, followed by Hamilton and Button. Just like in Q2, everybody is of course on the soft option tyre.

Both McLaren drivers made a mistake and backed off, only to try once again the next lap. This meant Hamilton moved up into 1st place with a 1:21.260. He thereby goes faster than Grosjean, Button and Raikkonen.

Pastor Maldonado drove a warmup lap but decided to return to the pits immediately after that without setting a time. Ferrari on the other hand is waiting longer and look set to use only a single set of tyres during Q3.

Three and a half minutes from the end, Vettel starts his first attempt of Q3. Vettel had an advantage after two sectors but eventually lost 3 tenths to Hamilton in the final two turns.

30 seconds from the end, Maldonado moves into 4th but goes on for another flying lap. Hulkenberg then passes the finish straight as is 7th.

Alonso then crosses the line into 4th, marginally quicker than Massa. Grosjean, Button and Hamilton also improved, making this a seemingly easy pole position for Lewis Hamilton.