Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/546399
54 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 JULY 2015 Sport FORMULA 1 Hamilton eases to Budapest pole Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W06 LEWIS Hamilton made it a clean sweep of practice and qualif ying sessions by taking a comfortable pole position in Hungary on Saturday, finishing over half a second ahead of Mer- cedes team mate Nico Rosberg. It's Hamilton's fifth Budapest pole and his ninth P1 start from ten races this season. Behind the Silver Arrows, Fer- rari's Sebastian Vettel edged Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo for third on the grid, with Kimi Raikkonen fifth in the second SF15-T. Williams' Valtteri Bot- tas completed the top six. Hamilton, already fastest in FP1, FP2 and FP3, maintained his superiority in the opening Q1 session as, in sweltering conditions, he lapped at the last moment in 1m 22.890s on the soft tyres to edge out Rosberg's 1m 22.979s by 0.089s. Vettel chased them with 1m 23.312s for Ferrari. Further back there was brutal disappointment for McLaren's Jenson Button, who had been third on the soft tyres but suf- fered an ERS deployment prob- lem when it mattered. His lap of 1m 24.739s on softs was a tenth off Carlos Sainz's, which meant the Toro Rosso driver got through but the Englishman didn't. Marcus Ericsson just edged out Sauber team mate Felipe Nasr for 16th, with 1m 24.843s to 1m 24.997s, as Roberto Mer- hi outqualified Marussia team mate Will Stevens, 1m 27.416s to 1m 27.949s with a stellar fi- nal effort. McLaren's joy at getting Fern- ando Alonso safely through to Q2 evaporated immediately as the Spaniard, 14th in Q1, rolled to a halt close to the pit entry on his out lap at the start of Q2. The session was red f lagged as he energetically pushed the car back down the pit lane, and marshals then helped him get it back to the garage. Sadly Alon- so's efforts were in vain as the rules dictated that he was un- able to continue, his car having not returned to the garage un- der its own steam. Hamilton again went fastest in Q2 despite losing one of his runs because of that incident, with 1m 22.285s to Rosberg's 1m 22.775s, the German com- plaining bitterly of understeer throughout. Vettel also did only one run, and was third with 1m 23.168s. As Romain Grosjean jumped up to 10th for Lotus, Nico Hulkenberg got bumped after posting 1m 23.826s for Force India in the extremely tight midfield. Behind him Sainz also failed to make it for Toro Rosso, with 1m 23.869s. Sergio Perez was 13th with 1m 24.461s in the other Force India, as Lotus's Pastor Maldonado completed those with a time in 14th on 1m 24.609s. Hamilton continued to set a blistering pace in Q3, going comfortably fastest on both runs. His first was slightly slower at 1m 22.408s than his Q2 time, but his second was the fastest lap of the weekend in 1m 22.020s. Rosberg improved on his first run time of 1m 22.766s with 1m 22.595s, but it was far from enough and was surpris- ingly only just out of reach of both Vettel and Ricciardo. The German just held on to third with 1m 22.739s as Ricciardo got his RB11 round in an im- pressive 1m 22.774s. Kimi Raikkonen, who was un- able to do a soft tyre run in FP3 because of a water leak, had to settle for fifth with 1m 23.020s, and had fellow Finn Bottas for company on the third row after the Williams pilot lapped in 1m 23.222s. Daniil Kv yat in the sec- ond Red Bull will line up on row four with Felipe Massa in the other Williams, going round in 1m 23.332s to the Brazilian's 1m 23.537s. Completing the top 10, Max Verstappen lapped his Toro Rosso in 1m 23.679s for ninth as Grosjean couldn't better 1m 24.181s in his E23 Hybrid. Thus the provisional grid will line up: Hamilton, Rosberg; Vet- tel, Ricciardo; Raikkonen, Bot- tas; Kv yat, Massa; Verstappen, Grosjean; Hulkenberg, Sainz; Perez, Maldonado; Alonso, But- ton; Ericsson, Nasr; Merhi, Ste- vens. Lewis Hamilton will start from pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix after his sizzling form showed no sign of relenting in the searing Budapest heat Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix Qualifying Positions Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. L. Hamilton Mercedes 01:22.020 20 2. N. Rosberg Mercedes 01:22.595 21 3. S. Vettel Ferrari 01:22.739 17 4. D. Ricciardo Red Bull 01:22.774 20 5. K. Raikkonen Ferrari 01:23.020 16 6. V. Bottas Williams 01:23.222 19 7. D. Kvyat Red Bull 01:23.332 17 8. F. Massa Williams 01:23.537 20 9. M. Verstappen Toro Rosso 01:23.679 18 10. R. Grosjean Lotus 01:24.181 18 11. N. Hulkenberg Force India 01:23.826 13 12. C. Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 01:23.869 16 13. S. Perez Force India 01:24.461 14 14. P. Maldonado Lotus 01:24.609 12 15. F. Alonso McLaren no time 7 16. J. Button McLaren 01:24.739 8 17. M. Ericsson Sauber 01:24.843 8 18. F. Nasr Sauber 01:24.997 8 19. R. Merhi Manor 01:27.416 8 20. W. Stevens Manor 01:27.949 6 Vettel praises Ferrari for 'finding direction' SEBASTIAN Vettel has praised his Ferrari crew for "finding a direction" after a troubled start to the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. Vettel finished seventh on Friday's timesheets, two plac- es behind team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, admitting that there was "a lot to clean up". But the German recovered to set the third fastest time in qualifying, with Räikkönen fifth, the pair split by Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo. "We had a difficult day yester- day, with some things stopping us and slowing us down," began Vettel in the post-qualifying press conference. "I'm glad that we found a di- rection. We took it a little bit easier, trying to build it up in FP3, which worked. "Throughout qualifying the car kept coming to us and im- proving. "I think third is the maxi- mum we could do today, so we can be very, very happy, espe- cially with the rough start to the weekend." Vettel remains hopeful that an opportunity to challenge Mercedes will arise on Sunday, but expects Williams and Red Bull to pose a threat behind. "Now obviously we're hoping for a good race, and who knows on this track, usually there are a lot of things happening on Sun- day," Vettel added. "Maybe we can do something against these guys [Mercedes], but I also expect a tight race with the people behind, the Williams and the Red Bull in particular." Sebastian Vettel