Nico Rosberg finished in pole position during a hard wet-dry session in Budapest, and was cleared of misconduct after stewards examined whether he slowed for yellow flags.
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Rosberg’s Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton lost pole because he slowed after McLaren’s Fernando Alonso spun.
“According to the stewards, “telemetry demonstrated that the driver reduced speed significantly into Turn 8”.
Nico Rosberg will be celebrating after collecting his fiftieth front row start at the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The rules state that a driver must reduce speed significantly and be prepared to change direction or stop in case of “double waved” yellow flags, and Rosberg and team boss Toto Wolff argued he had lifted off enough. “For us drivers, we need to fully understand the yellow flag situation”.
The difference in conditions on Rosberg’s lap opened the door for an easy pole position, which he took with a 0.143-second advantage.
Daniel Ricciardo was third for Red Bull on a weekend when the former champions hope to challenge Mercedes for the win, with his team mate Max Verstappen fourth.
Other cars, including Rosberg’s Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, had been forced to slow substantially as the McLaren stopped half on and half off the circuit. It paved the way for Rosberg, courtesy of being one of the last drivers to complete their final run, to snatch top spot for Sunday’s grid away from his championship rival.
A thunderstorm before qualifying contributed to chaotic scenes in the opening phase of the session.
“For sure there were double waved (flags) but I had a very, very big lift and lost a lot of time as a result”, Rosberg told reporters after qualifying.
“I felt good on the lap – a bit unfortunate with Fernando, but these things happen”. And Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was another casualty of the inclement weather, pushed down to 14th on the grid thanks to a rapidly drying track in Q2 that caught out the experienced Finn.
“Well yes, when it is a yellow flag it says that you have to be prepared to slow down or you have to slow down and lose some time”, he said.
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Qualifying on Saturday was hampered by heavy rainfall, which delayed the start by 20 minutes and also led to several interruptions and crashes, including by Felipe Massa of Williams and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.
