Nico Rosberg ended the opening day of practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix fastest after Mercedes team mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton crashed out on Friday.
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With conditions changing from wet to dry during qualification, it was the German who came out on top, with his Mercedes’ colleague sharing the front row of the grid.
The McLaren team enjoyed the conditions that reduce the advantage of the Mercedes-powered teams and, despite spins, two-time champion Fernando Alonso and 2009 champion Jenson Button were seventh and eighth.
Rosberg barely appeared to slow down during the incident, with Hamilton and Red Bull boss Christian Horner questioning how he was able to set the fastest time in the middle sector – the same sector in which Alonso spun out – during his pole lap.
“I had a big lift and I was also slower in that segment than on previous lap so I am sure I will be OK”, Rosberg said. For me there was no question I had to lift because Fernando was on track but perhaps for Nico I think Fernando had cleared but there were still flags. “Today I missed a long run so when I get into the race will be the first time really attacking and making those tires last as long as they need to go”.
“It was a really challenging qualifying”, Rosberg told reporters after the 26th pole position of his career.
After that short stint, the top ten were Ricciardo, Verstappen, Perez, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Nasr, Hamilton and Bottas.
“Nico has been a core member of the Silver Arrows since the team returned to the sport in 2010 and has played a crucial role in the team’s success in that time”, said a team statement.
Rosberg dipped into the 1:20s in FP2, eventually setting the benchmark for time at one minute and 20.4 seconds.
Hamilton knows that a victory here, which would be a record-breaking fifth at the Hungaroring, will see him lead the championship for the first time this season.
The session started on a soaking track after heavy rain, ended two hours later, and featured four red flags – three of them for crashes.
As the sun emerged, Q2 was played out on a drying track, and Hamilton must consider himself somewhat fortunate to have progressed to Q3 after ending up in 10th following a mistake at turn one.
“With that sort of lap time?”.
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Britain’s Jolyon Palmer impressed in the hard first session, taking 17th and beating Renault team-mate Kevin Magnussen by two places. “Looking forward to the race and a great opportunity tomorrow”. That left the Renault driver 17th on 1m 43.965s, ahead of Massa on 1m 43.999s, Magnussen on 1m 44.543s, Ericsson on 1m 46.984s, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein on 1m 47.343s and Haryanto on 1m 50.186s.
