Lewis Hamilton has continued his domination of the Formula 1 field in Budapest, securing pole position for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver was fastest in all three qualifying sessions and rubbed salt into the wounds on his final lap, going even faster than his former fast time. The only time he didn’t look like the fastest man at the track was on his first fast lap in the final session when his McLaren snapped into a vicious oversteer at Turn 1.
The pole is Hamilton’s third for the year after he collected pole in the opening two races in Australia and Malaysia.
Hamilton will start ahead of Renault’s Romain Grosjean, who collected his best-ever Grand Prix qualifying position.
Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel will start third. He ran wide on his final fast lap attempt, but was unlikely to topple Hamilton’s best time.
McLaren’s Jenson Button took fourth place, ahead of Kimi Raikonnen, world title leader Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.
Williams duo Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg round out the top 10.
Australian Mark Webber was fastest in the morning’s practice session but was knocked out of the final qualifying session by Senna and will start 11th.
The Mercedes team had a horror qualifying session, with Nico Rosberg taking 13th and Michael Schumacher 17th.
Toro Rosso’s Australian driver Daniel Riccardo will start 18th.
Qualifying, Hungarian Grand Prix
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
| 1 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:21.794 | 1:21.060 | 1:20.953 | 18 |
| 2 | 10 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1:22.755 | 1:21.657 | 1:21.366 | 26 |
| 3 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:22.948 | 1:21.407 | 1:21.416 | 18 |
| 4 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:22.028 | 1:21.618 | 1:21.583 | 22 |
| 5 | 9 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus-Renault | 1:22.234 | 1:21.583 | 1:21.730 | 22 |
| 6 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:22.095 | 1:21.598 | 1:21.844 | 19 |
| 7 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:22.203 | 1:21.534 | 1:21.900 | 19 |
| 8 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1:22.475 | 1:21.504 | 1:21.939 | 22 |
| 9 | 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1:22.271 | 1:21.697 | 1:22.343 | 24 |
| 10 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1:22.176 | 1:21.653 | 1:22.847 | 19 |
| 11 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:22.829 | 1:21.715 | 17 | |
| 12 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1:21.912 | 1:21.813 | 15 | |
| 13 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:22.079 | 1:21.895 | 16 | |
| 14 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:22.110 | 1:21.895 | 17 | |
| 15 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:22.801 | 1:22.300 | 17 | |
| 16 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | STR-Ferrari | 1:22.799 | 1:22.380 | 10 | |
| 17 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1:22.436 | 1:22.723 | 17 | |
| 18 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | STR-Ferrari | 1:23.250 | 8 | ||
| 19 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1:23.576 | 8 | ||
| 20 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1:24.167 | 7 | ||
| 21 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:25.244 | 9 | ||
| 22 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1:25.476 | 10 | ||
| 23 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1:25.916 | 9 | ||
| 24 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1:26.178 | 11 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Hungarian Grand Prix Race Guide.
