F1: Russell wins shock pole for Hungarian GP

Before the weekend, George Russell said he loved the Hungaroring. It was perhaps his favorite track.

Now it definitely is.

Russell took a shock pole position in his #63 Mercedes for the Hungarian GP. Russell’s lap of 1m17.377s beat the favored Ferraris of Carlos Sainz Jr. by 0.044s and Charles Leclerc by 0.190s.

#63 George Russell: Mercedes AMG Team F1 during the Hungarian GP, 28-31 July 2022 at Hungaroring, Formula 1 World championship 2022.

“Yesterday was probably our worst Friday of the season,” said Russell. “Then that last lap, Turn 1 was mega, Turn 2. The lap kept coming, and I looked at the screen and saw P1, was amazing.

“We need to understand where that came from today, we generally have good race pace, and we’re going to be absolutely going for it.”

“Today I felt I had the pace for pole, it went away in the last sector with a few snaps but congratulations to George, he must have done a great lap,” said a disappointed Russell. “We have the pace, the tire management will play a big role and Mercedes race pace is an unknown. I think it will be an exciting race.”

#55 Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari during the Hungarian GP, 28-31 July 2022 at Hungaroring, Formula 1 World championship 2022.

“I was struggling with the tires, getting the tires in the right window. I’m sure we’ve got the pace in the car to come back a bit more into it, so I’m sure we’ll have a better Sunday,” said a disappointed Leclerc.

Lando Norris will start 4th while Esteban Ocon rounded out the top-5.

Meanwhile, the Red Bull team choked, with Max Verstappen down in 10th with power unit issues and his teammate Sergio Perez in 11th.

Russell beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton by a whopping 0.765s, but the 7-time champion’s DRS did not open.

Ferrari, are the best placed, with Sainz second and on the clean side of the grid while Leclerc will be going for the win from third. They need to make a big dent in Red Bull’s championship lead if they can, but first, they have to take care of Russell.

And as Sainz said, Mercedes are just such an unknown. From race to race, they are either right on the pace of the front-runners or way back, and it is hard to tell which it is going to be and plan accordingly.

Russell said their race pace was good – and at a track where overtaking is difficult, he will be trying to make his W13 as wide as possible.

“I’ll take it! We saw from the beginning of qualifying the tires were in the right window, and this is the result,” said a happy Toto Wolff.

Qualifying Results

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	Q1	Q2	Q3	LAPS
1	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:18.407	1:18.154	1:17.377	23
2	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:18.434	1:17.946	1:17.421	22
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:18.806	1:17.768	1:17.567	22
4	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Mercedes	1:18.653	1:18.121	1:17.769	19
5	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine Renault	1:18.866	1:18.216	1:18.018	20
6	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine Renault	1:18.716	1:17.904	1:18.078	17
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:18.374	1:18.035	1:18.142	21
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo Ferrari	1:18.935	1:18.445	1:18.157	20
9	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Mclaren Mercedes	1:18.775	1:18.198	1:18.379	19
10	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:18.509	1:17.703	1:18.823	21
11	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:19.118	1:18.516	–	16
12	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo Ferrari	1:18.973	1:18.573	–	16
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:18.993	1:18.825	–	18
14	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	1:19.205	1:19.137	–	16
15	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas Ferrari	1:19.164	1:19.202	–	16
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri Honda	1:19.240	–	–	9
17	23	Alexander Albon	Williams Mercedes	1:19.256	–	–	10
18	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes	1:19.273	–	–	10
19	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:19.527	–	–	9
20	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:19.570	–	–	10