“I’m aware he’s done very well and he’s had the win and the podiums”, said the Australian, who beat four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in his first season at Red Bull before the German left for Ferrari.
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During that brief spell on track he was still able to set the fifth fastest time of the session, albeit on the soft compound tyres rather than the super-softs used by Rosberg to set his best time.
Torrential rain had delayed the start to qualifying and wrought havoc during Q1 which saw four red flags and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, Williams’ Felipe Massa and Manor’s Rio Haryanto all crash.
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen also recently put pen to paper on long-term contracts with Red Bull.
“It was a really challenging qualifying. I’m looking forward to the race and the great opportunity tomorrow”.
Rosberg slowed for the flag but was allowed to reaccelerate and complete his lap. “I don’t know if they had it cleared by the time he got there”, he said.
Stewards agreed, saying technical data showed Rosberg had “reduced speed significantly”.
“I think you saw a lot of moments coming onto there and yeah, got a really good lap in on that last lap so yeah awesome, very happy with that”.
McLaren, meanwhile, were forced to fit a new power unit into Fernando Alonso’s vehicle, while the Spaniard was in the garage for the majority of the session due to a damaged floor.
Three-time champion Hamilton, who is now trialing Rosberg by just one point, was 0.143 seconds behind the German opponent. Mercedes has won nine of the first 10 races this season and 41 of the last 48.
The spin may have been partly down to the Hungaroring’s new asphalt, which caught out many drivers lacking grip, and now sees Hamilton playing catch-up after missing out on valuable running.
“I did a long run this morning which was more comfortable than yesterday, so signs are we should be more competitive than yesterday”.
“It was a tricky session”.
Before the last practice, motorsport’s governing body reaffirmed its commitment to “zero tolerance” for cars going off the track.
“With that sort of lap time?”
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The race saw Hamilton lose control on Turn 11 on the twisty track as he ended up hitting the barriers side-on.
