Ferrari returns to form in Hungary
After having been off the pace at Silverstone, Scuderia Ferrari took over the reign at the Hungaroring. Sebastian Vettel secured the 48th pole of his career while his team-mate Kimi Räikkönen grabbed the second place for the 32th Hungarian GP.
Ferrari brought a series of new parts to the Hungaroring including modifications to the rear part of the floor, horizontal element of the bargeboards and some further minor upgrades. Sebastian Vettel was delighted with the step Ferrari made for the last race before the summer break of the 2017 F1 season.
“Today has been a great day” said a radiant Sebastian Vettel, after scoring his second pole of the season.
“The car and the whole session were fantastic! I am really happy. We brought some new parts here and we tested them yesterday. Then obviously, we talked about it a lot and I think we got the car in better shape this morning.”
“We are working very hard to get everything right. The guys have worked so hard and they love what they do. So, it is good to get back into the car and do our job. We love racing and this weekend has been very good so far. We know we have a strong car, no matter where we go, and that’s the great thing about this year. Now we have to move forward and focus.”
The quadruple champion was happy to dominate the Saturday action of the Hungarian GP, but he stressed that the race will be rather tough because of its climatic conditions.
“Qualifying is done, so we now concentrate on the race. There’s a lot of hard work to do and we need to take it one step at a time. Now, we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Thank you all!”
Kimi Räikkönen lost out by 0.168 second to his German team-mate. The Finn was happy that Ferrari could capitalize on the fact that the twisty layout of the Hungaroring highlights the strengths of the SF70-H.
“First and second position is a very good result for team”, Kimi added. “We kind of expected that this circuit would fit us better for certain reasons, but of course you cannot ever take it for granted. Today I really felt I had the speed, but I made a rather stupid mistake at the chicane, I put the left wheels on the kerb under braking, got sideways and lost time.”
The Espoo-born driver felt that he let the pole position slide out of his hands after making a mistake in the challenging chicane of the track.
“I’m a bit disappointed with what I did, because I had the chance to be one place up, but I ‘m happy because I still managed to take second place.”
“It’s been quite close between three teams so far, so tomorrow it all will depend on what happens in the first ten laps; it’s not going to be an easy race for anyone. There’s no way to plan things for the first two corners. The one who makes the best start has the better chances. Tomorrow we’ll have a long way to go to replicate today’s result,” concluded the 2007 champion.
