“It was a really challenging qualifying with the changing conditions all the time”, said Rosberg.
Advertisement
Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, both of Red Bull, were third and fourth fastest respectively while Sebastian Vettel qualified fifth.
Lewis Hamilton believes he was denied a certain pole position for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix after the bad luck which blighted the early part of his season returned in dramatic fashion on Saturday.
Rosberg, who earlier this week signed a new two-year extension to his Mercedes deal, has never stepped foot on the podium in his 10 previous races here. “Well done mate. Fantastic drive”. “This is a great result for us as a team, but yeah, what a day”.
In reality, the race into the first turn was the only one there was up front, as Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo got a good launch off of the grid and challenged the Silver Arrows into the first turn.
Rosberg, who had been leading the championship since the first race of the season, insisted he is not looking at the standings yet.
When you think that I grew up watching Michael, so to now have had similar, or one more, than he had here is just incredible.
Hamilton’s lead over Rosberg was rarely more than two seconds, while Rosberg’s lead over Ricciardo grew to 8.1 seconds by the end of lap 18.
However, Rosberg, further back, arrived on the scene as Alonso got going again.
Even if he were stripped of it, with Hamilton second Mercedes would still be guaranteed their 46th pole from the last 49 races, with the German outfit starting all but one round this year from the front. A struggle to build power after pitting for soft tyres was handled calmly – and without any inappropriate radio messaging from the pit wall – while Esteban Gutierrez’s selfishness under blue flags was passed off with a cursory wave of disdain from the three-time world champion.
The team was notified of the stewards’ decision to investigate the incident at 19:16, almost four hours after the end of the session.
This left Rosberg only seven-tenths behind, but Hamilton responded with a fastest lap to re-open the gap to 1.1 seconds and soon extended it to 2.9 seconds.
With 10 laps to go, the chase was on, but Mercedes remained comfortably clear in their personal duel well ahead of Ricciardo’s Red Bull.
The top three held position through the first pit stops, after which Ricciardo had slipped eight seconds behind Rosberg. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) +27.539s 4. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) 28.213, 5. Kimi Raikkonen took P6 in the second Ferrari, having started from P14.
Advertisement
Fernando Alonso delivered on that risk when he spun his McLaren in the second sector. Joining him on the third row of the grid is Carlos Sainz in his Toro Rosso.
