“For sure there were double-waved yellows but I had a very big lift, I lost a lot of time as a result”, said the championship leader.
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As a result, Rosberg’s fourth pole position of the season will stand.
Rosberg lapped the 4.3-km Hungaroring in one minute 19.965seconds on Saturday, beating Hamilton by 0.143 seconds.
During the final seconds of the session, the yellows were brought out for Fernando Alonso who span ahead of Lewis Hamilton, prompting the Briton to slow, despite having recorded the quickest first sector.
“Everybody was backing off and you needed to make sure you get a good gap there, even for the great last lap because the timing was quite tight”. “I was unlucky, but these things happen”.
It was also Mercedes’ 46th in the past 49 races, with the German outfit starting all but one race this year from the front.
There were doubts about whether Rosberg would be allowed to keep pole after onboard replays showed him also encountering yellow flags but the 31-year-old said he’d lifted off the throttle in that section of the track.
It came at the end of a qualifying session spanning almost two hours – double the usual time – due to rain and a frantic Q1 featuring four red flags.
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, both of Red Bull, were third and fourth fastest respectively while Sebastian Vettel qualified fifth. Team mate Kimi Raikkonen fell casualty to the rapidly shuffling order in changing conditions and was knocked out in the second phase of qualifying.
Torro Rosso’s Fernando Sainz secured sixth place on the grid while there was a positive performance for McLaren with Fernando Alonso claiming seventh and Jenson Button eighth position.
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Nico Hulkenberg of Force India and Valtteri Bottas in the Williams close out the top 10 positions.
