F1, GP of Hungary: Russell was the unexpected poleman of a classification in which Red Bull had a bad time

Black clouds on the horizon. Dry track at the Hungaroring. The Formula 1 classification of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the 13th round of the championship and the last one before the one-month break due to holidays, was unexpected and had an unexpected poleman: Giorgio Russel.

With Max Verstappen with power problems to the engine of your Red Bull In the last run of Q3 the Ferraris seemed destined for pole position, but the Englishman on Mercedes was 44 thousandths faster than Carlos Sainz and 190 better than Charles Leclerc.

“Incredible, incredible”, Russell repeated himself over and over again, taking pole for the first time in his career. “Yesterday was probably our worst Friday of the season. When I looked at the screen and saw P1, it was great. We need to understand where it comes from today, generally we have a good race pace and we are absolutely aiming for victory ”.

Leclerc will have the possibility from the second row – which he will occupy together with Lando Norris – di cut points to Verstappen, the leader of the championshipwhile in the third there will be the Alpines of Ocon and Alonso, in the fourth Hamilton and Bottas, old Mercedes teammates, and in the fifth Ricciardo and Verstappen, who have been able to divide the spaces in Red Bull.

In the previous Sebastian Vettel was seen as just another mechanic at Aston Martin for his car to enter the standings after crashing five minutes from the end of a third workout dominated by rain and surprising Nicholas Latifi and Williams, who scored a 1-3 with Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in between . But, although he disputed, he failed to advance beyond Q1.

With the threat of latent rain but a lot of wind and a dry track that – on paper – would favor Ferrari for what it did on Friday, Q1 started with red tires and drivers who are in a hurry to go out for a lap the green flag has just been raised. Thus, the first record came with Kevin Magnussen’s Haas (1: 20.388), although it was quickly surpassed by Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), later.

It was just the beginning of a ranking, in which It didn’t take long before Max Verstappen appeared breaking all records and signing a 1: 19.020 to keep the temporary “1”on a circuit where there were still no Ferrari men, who remained in the pitlane until the clock showed that there were 13 minutes to go until the end of Q1.

Lando Norris ousted Hamilton and Russell’s Mercedes but not Verstappen, from which he was 514 thousandths of a second despite the record in the third sector, until the Dutchman lowered his record again to 1: 18.792, three tenths of his teammate. Red Bull, the Czech Perez.

Sainz was the first Ferrari to set a fast time, but the Spaniard fell half a second behind Verstappen on the first flying lap, in which Leclerc did even worse: tenth at 1,187. It was not what was expected from the first start of a team that had dominated on Friday with these track conditions but it was only the first approach.

In the next, with Hamilton, Norris and Russell already among the Red Bulls – because Verstappen has improved even more (1: 18.509) and Checo was at 609 thousandths -, Leclerc has reached 297 thousandths and Sainz, second at just 52.

With three and a half minutes remaining, Alex Albon (Williams) Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), Nicholas Latifi (Williams), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) and Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) were eliminated, but nothing would be defined until the end. checkered flag.

It was then that it was known, in strict definition, that Tsunoda, Albon, Vettel -which had announced his retirement at the end of the season on Thursday-, Gasly and Latifi would not go to Q2, while the fastest car was the Mercedes, together with 1-2 by Hamilton (1: 18.374) and Russell (33 thousandths).

When the 15 minutes of the second part of qualifying have begun, Haas got his drivers out of the running with a desire to get into the top ten. Immediately behind appeared the Mercedes and only after the Ferrari. One after the other the times have dropped: Hamilton has signed a 1: 19.063; Russell, 1: 18.883 and Leclerc, 1: 18.769.

Lando Norris surprised by lapping 648 thousandths faster than the Monegasque while Checo Pérez displaced the Ferraris, remaining at 0.395. The stewards’ decision to lap it for exceeding the limits of the track was thwarted by the image of the repeat, so much so that a few minutes later they returned the time to the Mexican while his teammate Verstappen flew and he signed an impressive 1: 17.703, with a record in all sectors.

Although Alonso managed to finish second, at 201 thousandths, it was Leclerc who escorted the Dutchman, with just 65 thousandths between the two. Hamilton appeared tight, from 11th place and out of qualifying, but returned to the track finishing fifth, while Schumacher and Magnussen did not make it either Stroll or Zhou.

Czech Perez. inexplicably he remained in the pits even though he was in a risky position and in the last flying lap he was taken out of Q3 Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Ocon, in a strategic mistake that will cost Red Bull dearly on a narrow track where overtaking in the race is very difficult.

“I met Magnussen at turn 2 and I lost a lot. In the end I was unable to recover. So far it is a difficult weekend. We will try to score some points in the race”, underlined the Mexican in conversation with ESPN.

In Q3, Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Ocon, Hamilton, Russell, Norris, Ricciardo and Bottas came out. The first to fix an hour was Ocon (1: 18.890) but the first to make a really fast one was Sainz (1: 17.505)who managed to be almost half a second faster than Leclerc (1: 17.985, 480 thousandths), while Verstappen stopped the laps with slow first sets and Russell placed between them, 463 thousandths from the Spaniard.

With the cars back in the pits and five minutes from the end, the classifier ordered them as follows: Sainz, Russell and Leclerc in front, followed by Hamilton, Alonso, Norris, Verstappen, Ocon, Bottas and Ricciardo. However, the last lap was missing, the one that would have defined the times, which would have clarified whether that first attempt by the Spaniard from Ferrari would have been enough.

Without rain, despite Friday’s forecasts, the cars began to take to the track three minutes from the end to define the order of the Sunday starting grid. Immediately a radio went on; it was from Verstappen. “I have no power, nothing works”he announced to his engineer, as the Ferraris lowered the times: Sainz scored a 1: 17.421, 146 thousandths faster than Leclerc.

But the stake wouldn’t be for any of them, because while Verstappen insulted for his 10th position, Russell had a time of 1: 17.377lowering Sainz by 44 thousandths, to keep his first career pole.