A pole with a taste of revenge for Vettel: reactions from the Top 3 qualifiers

Bad day for the Formula 1 bookmakers. After the start of an Austrian revolt on Friday, Scuderia Ferrari put things back in place around the Hungaroring. The entire paddock agreed on a performance from the Italian team, expected to be at their advantage with this winding track. Bingo, with Sebastian Vettel’s pole position and Kimi Räikkönen’s second place!

A fulfilled poleman

Once out of the car, the poleman was savoring his team’s situation, which was turning things around: « We made a good step forward: the car was incredible throughout the day! I placed the car in the right operating window. I really love this track, having it in the right usage window, with this sun and this crowd, what more could you ask for? For this, we worked hard. I am very happy to see where we are, especially compared to where we were a few months ago! »

A fortiori, the message from the German seemed to directly address the criticisms that surfaced after the English race. It must be said that his team has lagged behind Mercedes since the Monaco Grand Prix. The tire blowouts at the end of the race in Silverstone were too much for observers, directly questioning the Scuderia’s progress.

« This result is great, especially after the reactions from the last race, which were a bit too numerous. We gave the best possible response on track » notes Vettel.

However, the four-time world champion makes it clear, the little settling of scores stops there. Obviously, the hardest part is yet to come, under the scorching Hungarian sun. But he will indeed have the best position, three spots ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who will not reach Michael Schumacher’s pole position record today. For his part, Vettel is now twenty points behind his illustrious predecessor: « But the main task of this weekend is for tomorrow. Nothing is won yet; we are just happy with this performance! »

Much more frustration for Räikkönen.

The garage partner saves the day! Always slightly behind his teammate during the different timed laps, the 2007 world champion avoided the pitfalls of a bad first lap to secure the best possible line, right at the buzzer!

My last lap wasn’t great overall: I started well but at the chicane (between T6 and T7), I braked outside the kerb and lost time. So I’m a bit disappointed because I thought I could go even faster! That said, we are happy with our adjustments. My second place is a decent result: I managed to improve my car during this session, stated the Finn.

With this new double in qualifiers, Ferrari thus achieves its 3rd all-red front row of the season after its performances in Russia and Monaco.

The lucidity of Bottas

« It seems that this was the maximum we could do, more or less, but they were just faster than us. » With these words of resignation, Bottas further highlights the disappointment of the Mercedes team, who did not expect to be this far behind in qualifying after a rather promising first day on Friday.

« Ferrari has been fast since the beginning of the weekend. » continues the Finn. « We knew the session would be tight. But they had the upper hand today! They really understand this track well. On our side, we still have work to do on this kind of layout. We are not performing at the level we want here. But tomorrow’s race will be long: anything is possible! »

Toto Wolff is even more critical of this result, which doesn’t seem to please him for tomorrow: “This is really starting off badly. Third place is not a good thing for us. Lewis couldn’t do anything at all with the car. It was a bit better for Valtteri, but not really there. We improved throughout the qualifying, but Lewis’s mistake in the last two laps compromised our fight for pole position,” concluded the Austrian.