Hungary Qualifying: Hamilton rainmaster as Vettel slips up

Rain is always the great leveller. In Q1 dark clouds were already looming heavily over the circuit, with thunder and lightening blitzing ominously which prompted the first laps to be made on Pirelli intermediates by the entire field until it was realised that slicks would be faster.

But by Q2 it was bucketing down, and the track remained sodden with full wets required for Q3 which in turn saw the Mercedes duo rise to the conditions and annex the front row with Hamilton taking pole position and Valtteri Bottas second.

It was a stonking final lap from Hamilton, constantly on the edge of control and out-of-control to stop the clocks at 1:35.658 which was three tenths better than the next best.

It was a remarkable about-turn as the Silver Arrows were on the back foot in the blistering heat of Friday, but once things cooled down they were back in contention, a fact that their four times world champion seized upon to claim his 77th top spot start in F1.

Hamilton summed up his session, "It's great for the team to have a one-two. We couldn't have expected this. Ferrari have been quickest all weekend and we were doing our best to catch up, but then the heavens opened and it was fair game. It's so tricky out there, at the beginning it was dry and then it got wetter so it was hard to say how much grip we had."

"When it was dryer it was a bit like doing ballet and tiptoeing trying to find a line. It was give and take all the way around. We've got a great position so we're going to do our best as a team and keep the red guys behind us," concluded Hamilton who will be looking to add a sixth victory at the venue where he has won in 2007, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2016.

Bottas reflected on a wet afternoon at the office, "Crossing the line being on pole then obviously Lewis had a better lap. It was very crucial, he was quicker on that lap, as a team for us one-two, it could've been worse. We are free to fight so I'm looking forward to it."

It was something of an unexpected coup by the Silver Arrows as Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari appeared to have the upper hand in the first two-thirds of the session but when it mattered, with the track really wet, he failed to fire and he was only good for fourth. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen got the better of him by claiming third on the timing screens.

Raikkonen, the oldest man in the field, said afterwards, "It was enjoyable in the rain. I think I was unlucky with the last lap, I was behind the Haas. It's not ideal but the weather was the most important thing today and the car was driveable and enjoyable."

"I was a bit unlucky with the tyres. There wasn’t much grip and with the spray, it was impossible to see where we were going and to improve, but tomorrow is another day and we will keep trying," added the Finn.

Vettel told reporters, "I think it was difficult in the wet and it was difficult to squeeze everything out of the car. It looks like in the wet conditions we aren't as confident as we are in the dry. We managed well until the end. I think in the dry we were in the control but it wasn't meant to be. It's not easy - it's better to start first but we will prepare to win from fourth."

Next up was Renault's Carlos Sainz who had stellar session comprehensively out qualifying his teammate Nico Hulkenberg and always at the sharp end of proceedings. The Spaniard will start from fifth while Hulkenberg was only good for 13th.

It was also a mega-session for Toro Rosso with Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley enjoying their strongest qualy session. Gasly will line-up sixth and Hartley eighth - the New Zealander's best qualy this season.

Quite the opposite for the Red Bull senior team as Daniel Ricciardo was out of sorts throughout the afternoon, and failed to make it beyond Q2, while acknowledged rain master Max Verstappen struggled to find the sweet spot in the conditions, he split the Toro Rosso duo in seventh. The Dutchamn was under investigation afterwards for alleged impeding.

Locking out row five, in ninth and tenth respectively, were the Haas pair of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean.

It was a dismal session for Force India, one of the worst performances in memory by The Pinks, Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez were only good for 18th and 19th respectively, while behind the scenes their team is in turmoil which surely did not help matters on a challenging day in Hungary.

In terms of entertainment and unpredictability, this session was proof that F1 is actually in a good place, provided you add water!

A hugely unpredictable qualifying session began on a wet track due to earlier rain, and though there was no rain falling at the start of the session all driver started the session on intermediate tyres. That meant that the expected order was maintained as Räikkönen led the way ahead of Vettel and Hamilton.

However, as the rain held off, drivers began to move to slicks and when Sainz eclipsed the intermediate tyre times by more than two seconds the leading drivers also took on ultrasoft Pirelli tyres.

One of those who opted for a different strategy was Ricciardo. The Australian took to the circuit on soft tyres and as the clock counted down he see-sawed up and down the order, slipping into the drop zone in the final minutes of the session. He kept grinding out laps, however, and eventually climbed to P12 at the end of the session to make it through to Q2.

There was no such luck for Vandoorne, though, as improvements elsewhere pushed him to P16 and out of the session ahead of Leclerc, Ocon, Perez and Sirtokin. At the top of the order Vettel took P1 ahead of Verstappen, with Bottas third ahead of Hamilton and Räikkönen.

Ricciardo was soon in trouble in Q2 as well. The Australian, along with Alonso, took to the track later than their rivals in Q2 and by the time they were into their runs on intermediates, the rain was intensifying quickly.

Ricciardo’s opening time left him mired in the drop zone and as the rain became heavier and the intermediate tyres ceased to cope with the conditions, there was no way out of trouble.

Ricciardo and Alonso both continued to circle on full wet tyres but neither improved significantly and the Spaniard was eliminated in P11, while Ricciardo exited the session in P12.

Behind them, Hulkenberg also exited, in P13, with his team attributing his late entry to the session to a problem with the fuel bowser. Ericsson went out in P14, and the last man eliminated in Q2 was Stroll who spun out in the process.

At the top of the order in the unpredictable conditions Vettel was quickest ahead of Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Verstappen, with Hamilton fourth. Gasly was fifth ahead of Bottas, with Hartley seventh ahead of Räikkönen and the Haas cars of Magnussen and Grosjean.

The rain began to back off in Q3 and for the top 10 qualifiers it was a case of playing a waiting game as the track improved. And it was Hamilton who got his timing just right.

Räikkönen had established himself in provisional pole with a good lap of 1:36.186 early on. In the final runs it looked like he might hold onto it as team-mate Sebastian Vettel found an improvement, but not enough to rise above the Finn.

Mercedes, though, had other ideas and Bottas moved ahead with a time of 1:35.918. Hamilton though was just behind and the got the best out of the Mercedes in the conditions to post a time of 1:35.658 to take his 77th pole position.

Behind fourth-placed Vettel, Sainz qualified fifth, with Gasly in an excellent sixth for Toro Rosso. Verstappen could find no improvement in the final runs and so he qualified in seventh place ahead of the second Toro Rosso of Hartley. Magnussen and Grosjean qualified in ninth and 10th places respectively.