For the third
time in a row and the sixth time this year, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has
claimed pole position – which should help his prospects in the Hungarian
Grand Prix, as 13 wins have been taken from pole at the Hungaroring from 28
races to date. Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel lines up alongside
him in second.
Conditions were similar to how they were for free practice yesterday, with
qualifying and therefore race strategy centring mainly around the
performance gap between the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft
compounds, which was around 1.6 seconds. Around half the drivers used the
soft tyres to be sure of getting through to Q2 – and sticking to the medium
tyres for Q1 carried a risk of early elimination.
The drivers all used the soft tyre in Q2, while Q3 was interrupted during a
short rain shower. The red flag came out a couple of minutes into the
session following an accident, which meant that none of the drivers were
able to set a time before the stoppage. When the action resumed, the top 10
came back out on the soft tyres once more, as with 39 degrees of track
temperature the circuit was drying quite quickly.
Many drivers completed three timed laps in Q3, benefitting from this year’s
new rule that allows the drivers in Q3 an extra set of the softer compound
for qualifying. The drivers outside of the top 10 correspondingly receive an
extra set of the compound to be used in the race.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton
was fastest in FP3 this morning on the soft tyre, completing his clean sweep
of the free practice sessions in Hungary. A fire in qualifying means that he
is expected to start from the back, giving him the opportunity to use tyre
strategy to try and make progress on a track where overtaking is notoriously
difficult.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “The rain shower in
Q3 showed how just a small burst of rain can really alter the situation, and
with some doubt about the weather tomorrow, this is something that could
affect the race as well. With the track progressively drying and become
faster, the timing of the qualifying laps was crucial: especially as the
clouds started to gather at the end of the session once more. We think most
drivers will go for a two-stop strategy, although a three-stop could
theoretically be quicker, depending on traffic. The performance gap between
the two compounds means that the soft is going to be the main race tyre,
with low degradation, so the strategy is going to centre around making the
most of this compound’s performance.”
The Pirelli strategy predictor:
For the 70-lap Hungarian Grand Prix, a three-stop strategy is theoretically
fastest (maximising the time on the faster soft compound), although a
two-stop strategy is more likely as overtaking at the Hungaroring is so
tricky.
The fastest three-stop strategy is: start on the soft, change to the soft on
lap 22, soft again on lap 44 and a final five-lap stint on the medium from
lap 65.
The best two-stop strategy is: start on soft, change to soft again on lap
29, then medium from lap 54. |