Hungarian GP: Exclusive Qualifying Report

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber once again dominated a qualifying session, taking the front row of the grid for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring.

In Red Bull's 100th race, Vettel was 0.411 sec ahead of Webber and his pole position on a circuit known for few overtaking opportunities, makes him favourite to win on Sunday if the car's notorious fragility does not become a factor again.

Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa took the second row of the grid for Ferrari, but were over a second off the pace. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) was fifth and will start alongside Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) who qualified eight places ahead of former world champion Michael Schumacher.

The Renaults had been quick during Saturday morning's free practice session, and Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov were early runners as the afternoon's qualifying session started. Petrov set a target time of 1'22.713 on his second hot lap.

With a relatively cool track temperature of 37°C, the tyres were taking a little longer to get up to optimum operating temperature of around 100°C.

Red Bull dominated all three sessions of free practice and Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) and team mate Mark Webber went straight to the top of the lap charts, Vettel leading with a 1'21.360.

Lewis Hamilton was driving the wheels off his McLaren-Mercedes, setting the fastest time in the first sector, but losing out to Vettel in the next two to go second fastest. Moments later he was deposed to fourth by Vettel and Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth), with Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) fifth, half a second off the pace.

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) joined the party with a 1'21.299 to go second fastest. The Brazilian was still smarting from having been instructed to had his lead at last week's German Grand Prix to Alonso who won the race. Ferrari was fined US$100,000 for breaching the rules which prevent such instructions and is still to appear before the World Motos Sport Council for bringing the sport into disrepute, where it is likely an additional penalty could be imposed.

Nico Hülkenberg (Williams-Cosworth) was tenth and swopped to the softer compound 'option' tyres, resulting in him moving up to seventh.

With minutes remaining in the first session of qualifying, reigning world champion Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) was languishing down in 17th place. He punched in a hot lap n which he set the fastest time in the first sector, but finished seventh, having done enough to stay out of the drop zone.

First Session Drop-Outs

18 Kamui Kobayashi JAP BMW Sauber 1'22.222
19 Timo Glock GER Virgin 1'24.050
20 Heikki Kovalainen FIN Lotus 1'24.120
21 Jarno Trulli ITA Lotus 1'24.199
22 Lucas di Grassi BRA Virgin 1'25.118
23 Bruno Senna BRA Hispania 1'26.391
24 Sakon Yamamoto JAP Hispania 1'26.453

Massa was nearly killed in last year's race at the Hungaroring after a spring came off the back of compatriot Barrichello's car and struck him in the eye, causing a skull fracture. But he had no fear returning to the track and went second fastest in the second session with a 1'21.417.

Button was struggling to stay clear of the bottom of the top ten and was in 11th place with seven minutes remaining. He later moved up to eighth before being pushed back to ninth by Nico Rosberg (Mercedes).

Former world champion Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) was having an even harder time, putting in 12 laps but only achieving 14th place. He failed to make it into the final session of qualifying for the second race in a row. His team mate Rosberg was eighth.

With three minutes remaining, Alonso set the fastest time in the first sector but stayed third.

Pedro de la Rosa (BMW Sauber-Ferrari) put in a superb performance to take ninth place and keep the likes of world champions Button and Schumacher out of the top ten.

Second Session Drop-Outs

11 Jenson Button GBR McLaren 1'21.292
12 Rubens Barrichello BRA Williams 1'21.331
13 Adrian Sutil GER Force India 1'21.517
14 Michael Schumacher GER Mercedes 1'21.630
15 Sébastien Buemi SUI Toro Rosso 1'21.897
16 Vitantonio Liuzzi ITA Force India 1'21.927
17 Jaime Alguersuari ESP Toro Rosso 1'21.998

Webber's first hot lap n the final session gave him provisional pole with a 1'19.184 but this was blitzed by Vettel's 1'18.773. Alonso and Massa went third and fourth, a second off the pace with Hamilton fifth. Kubica and Petrov who had looked handy earlier in the day had dropped to eight and ninth, with the final laps still to come.

Petrov ran wide but moved up to eighth as Webber set a new fastest time in sector 1.

Webber's final run was scrappy and he stayed second. Vettel failed to improve on his time but nevertheless took pole.

Petrov outqualified team mate Kubica for the first time in 12 races to take seventh.

Comments