Russell snatches pole from Sainz in Hungary by 44 thousandths

George Russell will start from the top of the grid at the Hungarian Grand Prix after winning his first pole position in Formula 1, at the wheel of a Mercedes W13 that, by no means, started as the favorite this weekend. The British driver has overtaken Carlos Sainz – who will start second – by just 44 thousandths of a second.

The Mercedes team warned with a double in Q1 – Hamilton 1st and Russell 2nd – that it was ready to surprise in Hungary, but after the dominance of Ferrari that we had seen session by session and the problems they had had in Mercedes during Friday, he was not taken into account in the fight for pole. And, in fact, they did not appear again until Q3.

In Q2, Max Verstappen responded by leading the time table, followed by Charles Leclerc, and this made us think that we would see a new battle between Red Bull and Ferrari; between the first and the second classified in the World Cup. We also had Carlos Sainz, who had been fourth in Q2 after Alonso, who had made a spectacular lap.

Precisely the driver from Madrid started the third part of the classification like a shot, commanding with a best time of 1:17.505, with which the Ferrari driver beat both Russell and his teammate, Leclerc, by more than four tenths. On his second flying lap, Carlos even lowered his time to 1:17.421.

Neither Leclerc, who had placed second, could beat Carlos, nor Verstappen, who had had a power problem that relegated him to tenth place in the time table. But suddenly, George Russell appeared with an incredible lap, with which he stopped the clock at 1: 13.377, which helped him achieve his first pole position.

Behind Russell and the two Ferraris, Lando Norris will start in Hungary from fourth position, confirming McLaren’s return to the top of the middle grid, with the Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso in fifth and sixth position respectively.

Lewis Hamilton, who until today was the last ‘poleman’ of the Mercedes team (2021 Saudi Arabian GP), finished seventh, followed by Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, who will start tenth. It hasn’t been a good day for the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Pérez, who crashed in Q2 and will start eleventh tomorrow.

Much further back, on the starting grid, we will find Sebastian Vettel, who could only be eighteenth with an Aston Martin repaired against the clock after his accident in the third free practice.

Qualifying times F1 GP Hungary 2022

The 2022 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix will be held on Sunday from 3:00 p.m.