Hungary: Grand Prix Qualifying Seen from the Pits

Mercedes

**Nico Rosberg** – 1st

Lewis Hamilton – no time [will start from the pit lane]

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): « I am absolutely appalled that we have once again let Lewis down by giving him such a difficult task for Sunday, so soon after his fantastic race in Germany. We are still combing through the car to understand the cause of this fuel leak, but the symptom was a high-pressure fuel loss from the internal combustion engine’s direct injection system. The fuel leak caused a major conflagration that likely almost entirely destroyed the car. We will, of course, give our best to provide Lewis with the car and strategy necessary for the best possible recovery in tomorrow’s race.

On the other side of the garage, in Q3, the rain created a stressful development in the last minutes of the session. Nico was under a lot of pressure due to the changing conditions and competitive laps from Red Bull and Williams. But he put in a fantastic time at the end to secure another pole position, so kudos to him. But above all, and despite everything, our apologies to Lewis and his fans for our failure today.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – 2nd

Daniel Ricciardo – 4th

Christian Horner, Team Principal: « It’s a great performance to finish 2nd and 4th. Both drivers did an excellent job, Sebastian extracted everything he could from the car and he really seemed in great form this weekend. Daniel also delivered a very solid performance. Hopefully, we can capitalize on these good starting positions tomorrow. »

– Read the drivers’ statements

Williams

Valtteri Bottas – 3rd

Felipe Massa – 6th

Rob Smedley, Head of Performance: « It was a challenging qualification, changeable with many unusual decisions to make, but the team responded very well as you could see […] Valtteri did a really good lap. Felipe missed out a bit on his lap, which is unfortunate because he would have wanted to be higher on the grid. […] We have a big race tomorrow to keep Ferrari behind us [in the championship] and to see if we can close the gap to Red Bull, which is really possible. »

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – 5th

Kimi Räikkönen – 17th [16th on the grid]

Pat Fry, Chassis Director: Diverse fortunes for our team in today’s qualifying, with our two drivers separated by no less than 12 places. In the first part, the fact that Maldonado and Hamilton were out made us keep both cars in the garage, relying on the times set on medium tires. With Fernando, it worked, but unfortunately, with Kimi, we were caught out by the evolving track. It’s very disappointing not to have been able to advance with him because he was doing better this weekend. Tomorrow, he will clearly be on the attack: on this track, it’s not easy to gain places because of the traffic, but our race pace is good, and we will do everything we can to turn the situation around. In the second part of the qualifying, the track continued to improve, and Fernando made it to Q3 quite easily. In the end, when the rain arrived, we decided to hit the track earlier than expected, and Fernando finished fifth. Rain is expected tomorrow, which further complicates predictions, but whatever the weather, we must try to get Kimi into the points and have Fernando score a lot.

– Read the drivers’ statements

McLaren

Jenson Button – 7th

Kevin Magnussen – 10th [will start from the pit lane]

Eric Boullier, Racing Director: « Even though it is very encouraging that Jenson managed to secure a good 7th place, we were all disappointed that Kevin ended his Q3 in the tire wall. The track conditions at that corner took everyone by surprise, and Kevin was powerless to avoid locking up and hitting the wall. Obviously, the good news is that he’s okay; the bad news is that the chassis and the gearbox are significantly damaged, and both will need to be changed tonight. As a result, unfortunately, he will have to start from the pit lane. However, I know that this won’t deter Kevin from pushing hard all the way tomorrow.

It was a tricky weekend until qualifying for Jenson, but everything started to come together in Q2 and Q3, which is the most important thing. It’s a bit frustrating not being able to beat the two Williams – which I think was our potential today – but he is well positioned to collect useful points for the world championship.

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Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – 8th

Daniil Kvyat – 11th [10th on the grid]

Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Manager for the team: « The conditions made the session incredibly intense. Fuel consumption changes when the track dries or gets wet, so it put us in a tight spot. JEV did a great job while Daniil was unlucky to make a mistake on his fast lap, which would have been good enough to place another car in the top 10. On the power unit side, we had no issues and are looking forward to converting that into good performance tomorrow. »

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Force India

Nico Hülkenberg – 9th

Sergio Perez – 13th [12th on the grid]

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: I’m delighted to see Sahara Force India make it into Q3 with Nico finishing the session in 9th place. Checo could have been there too if he hadn’t encountered a hydraulic issue with his car, which ended his session midway through Q2. It’s frustrating, but fortunately, we can make up for what he lost with a smart strategy tomorrow. We should have the pace to fight with the cars ahead of us. It should be hot, and tire management will once again be a priority. There is also a possibility of further showers tomorrow.

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Sauber

Adrian Sutil – 12th [11th on the grid]

Esteban Gutierrez – 14th [13th on the grid]

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: This is a positive result in qualifying, which is important on this track where overtaking is difficult. The entire team did a solid job that placed us in a good position for the race, and it could give us the opportunity to score points.

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Lotus

Romain Grosjean – 15th [14th on the grid]

Pastor Maldonado – no time [20th on the grid]

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director: Pastor’s car stopped at the beginning of Q1 due to a problem with the power unit’s battery […] Romain pushed hard in Q2 and finished in 15th position on the grid. Not a great day for us.

The allocation [of tires] here consists of one tire that performs well and one that will be less favored, so minimizing time on track with the mediums is what all teams will aim to do, given such a performance difference. We have free choice on the compound to start with, so we will explore every strategic opportunity.

There may be rain tomorrow, but unfortunately the forecasts do not predict it until after the race. We cannot base our hopes on the weather, but the E22 has certainly shown a relatively superior pace in wet conditions. Aside from the weather, we will do everything we can to achieve the best possible result.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – 16th [15th on the grid]

Max Chilton – 19th [18th on the grid]

John Booth, Team Director: « Once again, it seems we’ve had a day of two halves. Jules was much happier with the car’s balance this morning and made progress with his engineers during FP3 to improve the balance. We had a slight issue with a suspension change at the end of the session, which meant he ran out of time to set a lap on softs, but at least he was able to feel better with his car’s balance. In qualifying, he made his mistake on his first lap but brilliantly came back with a time good enough for Q2. Obviously, it’s clear that we were helped by the guys running on mediums, but that’s part of the game and Q2 strategy, and we managed it well.

With Max, the FP3 session went better, but he wasn’t as happy with the car as he was during FP2. Unfortunately, in the second stint, we had an electronic issue, which meant the car was stuck in a mode that didn’t provide power to Max, and we couldn’t fix it through the steering wheel buttons, so he lost his lap. Overall, we can be satisfied with how we managed things with Jules and we’re sorry for Max. We need to resolve these issues, which could have affected any of the cars today.

– Read the drivers’ statements

Caterham

Kamui Kobayashi – 18th [17th on the grid]

Marcus Ericsson – 20th [19th on the grid]

Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1 Manager with the team: « We did not have any issues with Kamui’s car, and a good lap put him in a good position for tomorrow. Marcus had a small issue with the accelerator, but it doesn’t seem to have affected performance or handling. We will see what we can do tomorrow, especially if the rain falls! »

– Read the drivers’ statements