2016 Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying

USPA NEWS - Silver Arrows slip n´ slide to sixth front row lockout of the season!
Nico today took his 26th career pole position ““ his second at the Hungaroring Circuit and fourth of the 2016 season so far. Lewis completed a sixth Silver Arrows front row lockout of the season in P2.

Nico Rosberg -

That was a pretty exciting qualifying session. It was crazy conditions in the beginning with all the rain and the big puddles and a lot of cars went off. My car felt very good in the wet ““ but when it dried out that was the best situation for us as we know the Red Bulls are strong in the wet. I gave it everything at the end of my last lap and it worked out. A big thanks to the team, as it was a great team effort to make sure I always had good track position. It´s a great feeling to be on pole here in Hungary. Tomorrow it will be a big battle against Lewis and the Red Bulls, so I look forward to that.

Lewis Hamilton -

I would never have expected to come around that corner and see Fernando facing me! I was four tenths up at that point and feeling really happy with the balance of the car, so pole was there for the taking. But this is racing and I´ll do my best from second. A great start would help ““ it´s about time I had one! In practice I felt like I was getting the procedure right, so I´m really hoping to finally get a good one off the line tomorrow. It´s a long run to turn one so there´s opportunity there and that could make all the difference. My long run pace this morning was pretty good, so hopefully it´s going to be a good race.

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport -

That was one of those upside-down qualifying sessions where you can do more wrong than right and we nearly got caught out a couple of times along the way in Q1 and Q2. But in the end, it came down to the final run in Q3 which decided the final order, in conditions very close to a fully dry track. Lewis was on provisional pole and doing a really strong lap when he just got unlucky with the yellow flag for Alonso´s spin ““ and he had to back out of his lap.

Nico was running later on the road and lifted in the yellow zone that was still showing, as we can see from the data, but he was nevertheless able to improve and snatch pole position right at the end. Overall, a topsy-turvy session but a great result and the perfect starting places for tomorrow´s race. But this is Hungary and we always see action on Sunday afternoons, so we know there is still a very long way to go. We need to prepare well tonight and run through all the scenarios if we want to achieve our potential tomorrow.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical) -

I thought that session would never end! A huge relief to seal the front row and have the opportunity to show the pace of the car in dry conditions after what was an unpredictable afternoon. Some quite incredible variations in the conditions combined with multiple incidents on track made it extremely tricky to get it right today, so well done to the team and the drivers for delivering the best possible result. It was far from plain sailing, with several close calls along the way.

The lockup for Lewis on his final Q2 lap gave us all a few extra grey hairs ““ but fortunately he did just enough to make the cut in P10. Q3 was much more straightforward, with a regular run plan back on the table. Nico put in a great lap to take a strong pole position, so our congratulations to him. Lewis was unfortunate to be hindered by the yellow flags on his final flying lap, so he could not defend his provisional pole time. But overall we can be very pleased to have the front row, with both drivers doing a great job and looking strong for what will hopefully be a slightly more straightforward day tomorrow!