The Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying Highlights Formula 1

Hungary became the first country to host a Formula One race behind the

Iron Curtain in 1986. Nowadays Budapest is a different City,

Formula One is a very different sport. You can still feel the

history all around you, but whilst time may pass, the 478rys --

Nigel Mansell... Damon Hill... Jenson Button wins!

The Lotus is on fire! His first ever Grand Prix victory. Welcome to

the world of winning... Fernando Alonso, the youngest man to win a

Formula One Grand Prix... Massa is in intensive care tonight...

Knocked unconscious. Is he blocking Hamilton there? I think he

deliberately did that. victories...

David Coulthard, great memories, but what is it about this circuit

that demands so much from the drivers because they say it's a

challenge? It's so physical, a lot of high G force corners and that's

what drains the energy and of course warm conditions as well.

Such a tight season. A few riders have won on the grid as well,

unusual to have so many years of success? But we are in a golden

year of Formula One. Schumacher was winning, Alonso took his first

victory here in dominant style. Raikkonen in his McLaren days also.

These are all good drivers soyou can see this is a place where the

cream rises to the top? It does indeed. I never won here, but

fantastic images there! We have had success around this racetrack. It's

a huge challenge, physically, mentally and for everyone involved

so exciting times ahead. Jenson Button's 200th race here, he won

that. This race marks the half way point of the season and my goodness,

we have clocked up some airmiles out on the track. So we use August

to recharge our batteries before heading off for nine more races

from September. One name you don't see on the list is Kimi Raikkonen.

This could be the start of a good weekend for the icemen and for the

Finns. Hungary is often thought of Not even a week's passed since the

German Grand Prix so you might wonder what can happen in the space

of six days? In Formula One, the answer is a lot. Here is Tom with

the news. Red Bull's controversial engine

maps are no more. The FIA think the team's gained an unfair advantage

by exploiting a hole in the regular laces which is why they've issued

collar if I can aces about curves, not that the team is worried by all

the talk. The guys haven't spoken much about it so I think that seems

pretty OK. We'll get on with it. If Red Bull lose momentum as a

result of the engine mapping change, one man likely to benefit is World

Championship leader Fernando Alonso. He leads the driver standings by 34

points from Webber and Vettel and can't praise his Ferrari team

enough at this half way point in the season.

They work very well and very hard. And also, you know, we maximise

always what we had in our hands. you were to take the car back now,

how much faster do you think it would go? Between two and three

seconds. We could improve the car. Ferrari achieved something, very

impressive. Jenson Button's won here twice before. His second place

in Germany was his first podium since the Chinese Grand Prix in

April and he says he's now feeling much more confident in macularen's

MP4 27. The car looks competitive with the Red Bulls and the Lotus.

Next few races should be exciting for us. Lewis Hamilton met Muhammad

Ali at the sports for peace gala in London on Wednesday. He was full of

fighting talk when he arrived he Hungary when reminded of Vettel's

comment that unlapping himself in Germany was a stupid thing to do.

tried to remain respectful to all the drivers when I'm racing,

regardless of what I might deep down feel inside about them. But

obviously he doesn't feel that way so, you know, that's the way it is.

We will hear from Vettel in a moment. If you were in the Lewis

Hamilton situation there trying to make that one-stop strategy work,

what would you have done, had a go at the leaders? Absolutely, that's

perfectly within his lights and the regulations. I can understand why

Sebastien's frustrated but rules are rules, get on with it. So Lewis

did nothing wrong? Of course not. After that race, Alonso increased

his lead in the driver's Championships, 34 points ahead of

Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton is This time last year, Vettel was 77

points ahead in the Championship, but this season, well, it's a very

different story. The home race certainly didn't go to script.

At the start, the lights went out. You could imagine things are going

well. When you looked back when Jenson was in the pit stop, is that

when things started to go wrong? Not really. We lost the position

which was not so nice. I think he had a very fast stop the one before.

COMMENTATOR: Fabulous stop. weren't putting ourselfs in the

best position and therefore lost the place. COMMENTATOR: On the

attack... Round the outside of Vettel. Things weren't looking that

badly. Obviously the race was still on and a couple of laps to the end

I was able to close the gap and able to go faster than Jenson. We

were able to pass. COMMENTATOR: Vettel takes second place again

from button. Did you realise immediately when you overtook

Jenson that you had overtaken him off track, as it were? Obviously, I

was aware of where I was going, but I wasn't, you know, intentionally

leaving the circuit to pass him and yes, unfortunately then in the end

we got the penalty but we have to accept it.

Tell us about the incident with Lewis Hamilton? At the time, you

looked annoyed that he was trying to unlap himself. Do you still

think he was in the wrong to do that?

Well, technically speaking he wasn't in the wrong so there's

nothing that preevenious from doing that. But surely it did distract us

and cost us some time, arguably the position for Jenson right at the

stop. Honestly, I wasn't expecting him to pass because he was a lap

down. If you want to do quick consecutive laps, find a better gap

then yes, messing around with the leaders. I was surprised when into

the hairpin he decided to outbreak... The headlines have been

levelling criticism that you maybe don't handle losing very well?

always depends how it gets said and gets written, but in a way, it's

also a compliment because I'm not here for losing, I'm not here to

finish second, you know. I'm not lying to you, we are not leading

the Championship, we are behind. There are a lot of points between

us and the leader, but plenty of time to catch up. We know that we

have to perform every single race as good as we can, otherwise

there's little chance to finish first.

Is that a man under pressure? don't think so. It's not going as

well as he would have liked. He accepts this is a big challenge,

this is Formula One. This time last year, he had six victories and had

only been off the podium once? was a remarkable run. As you can

see, it's not going quite as smoothly this year, a lot of points

to play for. Ferrari have just not dropped the ball anywhere, but

maximised every opportunity with Alonso. How much extra pressure and

skruet are you under as a young champion? He's the guy that's

wanting to be unthereoned by everyone. If you imagine he didn't

have the failure with the alternator in Valencia, we'd be

having a different conversation. The double world champion's never

won at this circuit but Red Bull were dealt a blow by the FIA who

clarified the rules? controversy about talkers, Red Bull

and Renault definitely runs on here. To explain it a little. This red

line is a typical talk curve of a Formula One engine. It's lumpy and

Formula One engine. It's lumpy and bumpy and what the driver wants is

something smooth like this blue line which will smooth out the line.

It's something like 10,000 RMM, then you get a smooth talk. If they

were to put in a curve like the yellow dotted line here, that would

contravene the regulations and be contravene the regulations and be

seen to be too dramatic. The other controversial thing, in Canada, Red

Bull had a hand adjustable right height device on the car. The

regulations state you must yooz tools to change the mechanical set-

up and that's been looked into this morning or been made apparent to

everyone -- use. We'll find out if Red Bull can get

their third consecutive pole conditions to those endured in

qualifying. For the last two Grand Prixs for qualifying, 30 Celsius

and sunshine here today, a track temperature of 44 Celsius. It will

be demanding on the tyres. Webber was fastest in practise, but what

lap time will we see the drivers do and what will get them into the top

17. Gary, you have the numbers, what is your estimate? The track

temperature's come up a little so it's difficult to predict. I think

a 22 2 or a 22 3. You could be left in Q1. Talk us around the challenge

of driving this circuit? Sector one is pretty much about stairgt

hairpin right hander and then another straight, so the main bulk

of the lap time and the differentiation between car, teams

and driver. Growian starts his lap here. That middle section is

relentless from when you go up the fast hill blind. He's made a

mistake already! On to his fast lap. He just went in too fast. That

shows the difference between when he finished the morning session,

the practise session we had earlier today, he would have been on the

yellow wall tyres, more grip available. Then the track

temperature has climbed to where we are at 2 o'clock, the harder tyres

offer less grip, try and spot his braking and he ran too wide. That

will have cost him straightaway a minimum of a tenth leaving that

with the brake balance on this lap and then his engineer's giving him

the exact information. He's saying two clicks forward, two clicks

forward. Growian coming out of the final

term. Lets's see the lap time. Certainly not quick. He's backed it

off and now he'll go on it, let's see what he can do. Hulkenberg on

track in the Force India had a good qualifying performance last time

out but four wheels over the white line, something to watch out for in

qualifiering. If you gain an advantage when all four wheels are

over the white line, you could easily lose that lap time and you

could be in trouble. Not the ideal start. That was the ending of one

lap, beginning of the other. Growian the only one to have set a

time. -- Grosjean. This track is hardly used during the course of

the year so it's super dusty. You can see the green artificial grass

which holds the dust and we see then again running wide. That

doesn't give him a problem as he goes into five. He's leaning the

left side. When he comes to the chicane and does flick left and

right, dusty tyres and you don't trying to get a good run on to the

straight. Even if it is psychological, it

affects the amount of grip that's on the surface of the tyre.

Nico Hulkenberg is up on the times at the moment. Kimi Raikkonen is

fastest at 1.23.22. Jean-Eric Vergne is second, but a long way

off that. Kimi Raikkonen has done a representative time so far. Plenty

of time in Q1. There is 15 minutes to go and Nico Hulkenberg comes out

of the corner and goes second. So Kimi Raikkonen on top. Nico

Hulkenberg second. We are waiting to see the other front-runners come

out. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton coming out on to the

circuit. No sign yet of just a couple of cars. Most have come out

and there is Felipe Massa. Massa going on to a lap. This is happened,

it is a replay. It is like Grosjean, he went in too quick.

The locked the rear axle. We're getting the replay with Nico

Hulkenberg. Nice on the apex as he builds the speed, there is too much

of the tyre on to the kerb and the rumbles take him out on to the

artificial grass. A good lap from Kimi Raikkonen on

the harder compound tyre. Lewis Hamilton is on a flyer. Hamilton

has gone fastest in the first sector, but Kimi Raikkonen 1.22.6.

Traffic to Michael and that's sending the message that he wants

the team to get on to race control and if Michael has been deemed to

have held Massa up at the end of his lap, then he will get a penalty.

You see Hamilton trying to get a clear run. He has Grosjean ahead of

him. He has Nico Hulkenberg coming up behind him and we are going to

see a replay of Lewis Hamilton getting wide in turn four. Now

that's the exit of turn four. Anyone who follow Formula One will

know that's the corner that Felipe Massa had that big accident a

couple of years back. TEAM RADIO: You have got one more

lap. We are going to be hearing a lot of

this talk, David, of people complaining about being blocked?

This is like Monte Carlo, but more open. It is easy to lose time when

you come up against the car in front. Michael has let Massa past

and Michael is on another lap so it must have been at the point where

Michael allowed him to overtake that Massa feels frustrated. Let's

look at Vettel, he is building the lap and saving the tyres. You can

see they are the white wall tyres. He is making sure he has plenty of

space ahead. He has a straight of clean air presuming that no one

comes out of the pit lane and here we go with Jenson Button hooking

into the gully of the apex from. And it is 1.23.1 and Jenson Button

is fourth fastest. He was complaining of understeer over the

radio on that that lap, but the engineers are saying that can

sometimes be the way to go. Keep going for it and he is fourth

quickest at the moment. Felipe Massa, those in the drop zone,

Vettel, Jean-Eric Vergne, Timo Glock and Vitaly Petrov. A big

lock-up there from Massa. That will have compromised his entry line.

What happens when you lock a front wheel, you turn in earlier to give

his exit. He catches the inside gully so you can see the

frustration coming out in the way Massa is driving to finish this lap.

In fairness, the tyres are clearly not as new as they would, but a

good solid lap time and that should be sufficient to take the pressure

off now. Alonso is more experienced and faster team-mate down in 13th.

Hamilton is on a fast lap and Maldonado is fast. Let's look to

see what Sebastian Vettel is up to. Let's see where this boosts Vettel

to? He is just ahead of Massa, but behind Hamilton, Senna, Raikkonen

and Grosjean, the top four. It is all about getting into the top 17

17. Mark Webber is fourth now. He is faster than Sebastian Vettel.

Well, it is interesting for me to see the psychological battle within

the teams. Mark has been looking racy in practise sessions relative

to Seb, but it is about when it comes down to that one important

lap in qualifying. Michael Schumacher is going through turn

four. Is this where he was blocking Massa? This is where Massa will

feel although Michael pulled over to the right-hand side of the track,

well, it is difficult to say that Michael held him up there to be

honest. It looks to me that Michael did everything he could. He didn't

steal his air. He pulled over to the right-hand side.

Hamilton, a couple of laps now, he set the fastest first sector. He

went slower in the second two sectors. We are watching Hamilton's

times. This is more like it. Very fast middle sector. He is on the

harder compound tyre, the medium tyre, so it is not as if he

suddenly put the softer tyre on. This will be impressive. He is

quickest already. Let's see what the lap time is? 1.22.3. Let's see

how fast he can be on this lap. Across the line 1.21.7. He is on

the harder compound tyres. Jean- Eric Vergne on the softer tyres. He

popped up to fourth. So several teams going out on the softer tyre.

Fernando Alonso had to switch to the yellow walled softer tyre in

order to make sure of getting into the top 17. It is Lewis Hamilton

who is sitting pretty at the top on that 1.21.7 having done that on the

harder compound tyre. It will give him more softer tyres to use in

qualifying when the the real battle for pole position begins. Alonso is

the next one under threat. Gary, you are seeing a lot of cars, I

think going out on the softer tyre, aren't you? Almost everyone. Vettel

and Webber left the pits on the soft tyre. This is where the

skittles start falling down. You could stop it now, but

unfortunately somebody wants to do better. They are using a new set of

of soft tyres now and they will probably use that set if they get

into the top 17. Fernando Alonso is going well here.

He set the fastest middle sector. He has been beaten by Paul di Resta

in the Force India. This is looking like these two are going to have a

similar lap time. Alonso a tenth quicker on the first sector, but it

is about this last sector now. He is second. 1.22.0. What about

Paul di Resta? Let's see what the lap is like. He is second. We

didn't really see that this morning, but they have got a car that

dialled in well. Rosberg coming out of the final turn. He is third.

1.22.0. Mercedes might have been struggling, but let's wait and see

because the times will be close. Nico Hulkenberg goes fifth. Not as

quick as Paul di Resta. Kobayashi in the danger zone at the moment.

Most of the Caterhams and both HRTs are down there currently.

Schumacher crashed down here in free practise in the wet. He went

into the tyre barrier, effectively aqua plaind on the intermediate

tyres. He is going wide there.

He is trying to get into the top 17, This car very much on the nose.

Let's see what the time is like as he comes across the line. Seventh

for Michael Schumacher. He is being pushed down the order. Not as quick

as Rosberg. A bit of under steer from Maldonado in the Williams.

Let's see what he can do as he tries to get into Q3. Ninth

position for him and Jenson Button on a lap at the moment as well. And

he is going pretty quickly at this stage. He is on the soft tyre, a

bit of a lock up there, that will cost him valuable time.

He ran too deep into the corner and as he got off the brakes the front

bites and he got oversteer. Let's see where it puts him. He is third.

He should be safe with that. Here comes Massa. Well, he is seven

seventh. And here comes Sergio Perez in the Sauber. He goes sixth

quickest. He is faster than Massa and faster than Nico Hulkenberg as

well. Another look at Jenson on that lap. That's the mistake we saw.

He carried too much speed on entry phase. He locked up that inside

wheel which is a characteristic we seep often from the McLaren, but

once you release the brake you brought the speed down and you

reengage that inside tyre and it picks up grip on the front axle and

wants to make the car rotate. Kobayashi, he slowed down, is he

going to get around in time to pick up the lap? I think he will. 30

seconds to go. Kobayashi in the drop zone, but he is in a group of

cars here. TEAM RADIO: You are plus five,

Heikki. And Kobayashi gets across the line

with 18 seconds left to try and get into the second part of qualifying.

He is 18th at the moment. Ricciardo is in the pits. It looks as if

Jean-Eric Vergne is going to make it through through this time.

I love these moments in qualifying. This is the equivalent of going all

in in poker. It is this lap or not at all for Kobayashi. He will know

that and the team will know that. Let's hope we watch him around this

lap. He is up on the first sector.

That's compared with 17th place. Not compared with the fastest time

of Hamilton. Kobayashi comes off his best ever Formula One result

last weekend in Germany after Vettel's demotion to fifth place,

Kobayashi got a fourth out of it. The best result for a Japanese

driver in eight years. Now let's see whether he can get into the

part of qualifying. A week is a long time in Formula One. You get a

great result one week and you are struggling to make it through. It

is promising, he is up on Four tenths of a second. His team-mate

is up in sixth place. Daniel Ricciardo is the man that is

going to be popped into the drop zone if he completes this lap

successfully. Nice and tidy on entry, drops a further gear to get

the drive off that last corner and releases any any KERS.

He is there and he is 15th and safe and it pushed Daniel Ricciardo out

and Jean-Eric Vergne has outqualified his team-mate by a

margin. It is only the second time Jean-Eric Vergne made it through to

It is the only second time that Jean-Eric Vergne outqualified the

Aussie. He got the lap well and ended up with the 15th fastest time

and he is through to the next part. So the drivers we have lost are

Daniel Ricciardo, Heikki Kovalainen, and Vitaly Petrov, and and and De

La Rosa. The Caterhams not able to get into

Heikki, Hungary has good memories for you. This is where you won your

first Grand Prix. This is your 100th start this weekend. How are

you feeling? I feel good, of course, it is always nice to come back to a

circuit where you have won a Grand Prix, but it is a shame it is the

only one, there should be many more, but hopefully in the future. A lot

of things turning up. There is a lot of Finnish fans and it seems to

be more Kimi's flags than my flags. I need to put up a fight.

Will you put up a fight tomorrow? How did you feel about qualifying?

We knew from Friday that we were not going to have a performance to

fight with the cars ahead of us, but we have been working with a new

package and we have been getting more and more out of it all the

time. The balance was good and I nailed a good lap. There is no

mistake and we can be happy about that and we have got to keep

chipping away. getting underway in Hungary and

after everyone drawing breath after that first session which was

exciting, Hamilton looking confident. Button less so. He had

to switch to the softer tyre. The only three drivers who didn't use

the softer tyre, Lewis Hamilton himself going fastest and the two

Lotuses of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, everyone else had

to use one set of their softer tyres and of course, they are

limited to three sets of each David, so it compromises how you have to

run the next part of qualifying? Yes, as you say, it leaves you in

an ideal world you get through this next part of qualifying on just one

set of your your option tyres leaving you one fresh set for the

shootout in the top ten and people like Red Bull will expect to be in

that top ten. Torro Rosso, probably not, but Michael Schumacher going

out earlier on a set of the options. Gary, we have seen the times from

Q1, what can we expect for them to get into the top ten? As you say,

Grosjean, Raikkonen, they didn't use the softer tyres. I think you

are going to have to nip to the 2 ss before you -- 2 ss before you

will be comfortably in there. Let's watch Michael. He is on the

softer tyre and let's see what he can do.

We see the drop down into turn two and it is a long corner. Small

corrections for oversteer and pulled the car back across the left.

Flat out through turn three, you have the benefit of having space in

the artificial grass. It is blind on entry, you commit to the turn in.

He runs wider than you would have has backed out of this lap. He

realises I am going to save the tyres. I haven't done enough on

that first sector to warrant finishing the lap. He has plenty of

clear air. The next man behind him on the track is Rosberg. Michael is

perhaps. We see it from the outside of the circuit. Turns in, misses

the apex slightly and there's enough. You can see the angle of

attack on the front right tyre, he's got under as he goes over the

rise, pushes out wide on o to the artificial grass. As a consequence,

when he turns into five, he misses the apex. Schumacher, another

mistake, but it's those that matter. Massa is fastest out there at the

moment. Michael's crossed the lain on that slow lap and has just

backed off. Massa hasn't backed off and is into the penultimate corner

exthe final right hander coming up. Long, sweeping right hander.

Working all the way through the turn and the tyre's working hard

too. Let's see that time. That could be

enough according to Gary's calculations. A good lap by Massa

there. This track saw him nearly take

victory back in 2008. What a difference it would have made to

him if his engine hadn't blown up with three laps to go in that

famous battle he had. Hulkenberg though faster than Massa.

Confirming that the force Indians have the edge. Half of the circuit

is now in shadow behind clouds and half of the track, that you can see

on the other side, is in the sun light. That does make a difference.

If you can go out under a shadow, under a cloud, it gives you that

little bit more per for chance, the air temperature cools quickly and

the engine breathes, the tyres is much more grip. It's either the sun

light at the top of the circuit and then into the shadow that does that,

they'll hope the shadow will come over the circuit and the lap times

will drop. Button's just gone fastest. Button faster than

Hulkenberg and Massa. Di Resta. Schumacher sixth. Rosberg crosses

the lain and goes fifth fastest. That's slightly faster than

Schumacher, in fact three tenths faster. Schumacher. Vettel on the

Red Bull. A difficult week for Sebastien, but he's up on the split

time. Down into turn 12 now, just the last two long corners. It's so

easy to make a mistake. Runs it in smoothly. Goes for a deep entry but

all under control there from Vettel. The target time of Jenson Button to

beat, 121.8. This is to try to get to the top ten, the final part of

qualifying. Fourth quickest for the moment. Growian crosss the line

quickest. A fraction faster than Button, but Raikkonen's on a good

lap as well. Alonso trying to get himself back up the list further.

Massa managed to improve his time. Alonso not really getting

comfortable so far in this session. Let's see what Webber can do as he

keeps it tight around the last corner.

Hasn't set a lap time yet. This is first time and sixth. Pulled out of

danger drop zone. Let's see what cake men does. He goes fastest. Two

tenths faster than Grojean. It's Lotus 1-2. It's all about getting

into the top ten. Gary, what are you seeing? They were on the new

soft tyre because they didn't run the new tyre in the early session.

Massa was questionable. There's three or four tenths in there for

when they try the new set. Webb esh using a lot of track there --

Webber. The Red Bulls were faster this morning, able to do 21 fives

and seem to be struggling to break into the 21s right now. There is a

bit of track evolution. If you look at rake none, he's been able to

improve his time from the morning session. The fastest of all with

Webber on 21 fives. The track is there or thereabouts, so

something's change sod far for the Red Bulls, maybe they're just

holding back a bit, but looks like they've lost pace. We'll get gari's

comment on that. -- Gary's comment on that. Senna is there. Maldonado

is 169 but on a better lap riding with Webber. Let's see if this

answers your question, David. Webber, yes, that's better. So they

do have some pace like they showed this morning. Webber was quickest

this morning, now has gone second fastest. Hamilton's on a good lap.

Hamilton very fast in the last sector. Very fast in the second.

Look at the margin! That's over tenth place. Some traffic ahead.

Perez and Sauber. Perez comes in. That's OK. Lewis has a clean run

and we could have a if you fastest time. Raikkonen's the target time

to beat. Hamilton goes faster by half a second, a massive margin

there but Lewis Hamilton. He is so fast here on this track. A couple

of pole positions he's had in the last couple of wins as well. Could

have been more victories but he's had a bit of bad luck too. This is

only the second part of qualifying so still a lot of action 20 today

go, but you can almost imagine Lewis Hamilton in the car saying,

take that.. Vergne on to a lap here as he tries to get Toro Rosso town

the top ten that.'s something he's never achieved yet. Team Radio:

Great lap. Fastest in every sector. Got held up there.

We did see that, but it didn't seem to cause too much problem, did it?

No, but it's always good to let the team know you think it's a bit more,

even if it's only psychological. If you believe you have more to give,

that's a great thing. If you look at lap times and think,

I don't think I can do that, that's not good. Maybe he's looking at

other lap times. Vergne still on a quick lap here. It's unlikely we'll

see Rosso into the top ten given the level of competition but it's

giving it a go and he's been on pole here in other forms in motor

sport. Team Radio: Getting ready to go

again. Mark, it's pretty tight. We'll run again. Interesting to

hear. They don't feel confident. Vergne goes eighth with that.

Valiant effort but I don't think it will be enough to get him into the

top ten. We are into the final five minutes now of Q2. On board, with

Massa, got a bit of traffic into turn one. Michael again. They keep

meeting each other out on track. That's clumsy of Mercedes, they

know where the other cars are on track, you cannot afford to hold up

a car that's on a time lap because you have to be absolutely sure that

you don't get a penalty. Let's see how this unfolds for Massa. Webber

leaves his garage now. That leaves him with no fresh options for the

last part of qualifying, presuming they get through. So this is Red

Bull on the back foot a little here. The man obviously in the seat right

now is Hamilton. He's used one set of primes and options so far in

this part of the qualifying we have had. So looking incredibly strong

ahead of going into the last qual of qualifying. Presumably you are

sighing the same? Did two laps in Q1. Called him into the box because

he didn't have to do the final lap. I think he's gone out now on his

first brand-new set along with Vettel as well. Let's see what this

lap is like for Massa. The Brazilian who outqualified Alonso

here last year. He crosses the line. A good lap again from Massa. Looks

to be in good shape. Alonso, his Thame mate, currently only tenth.

He needs this lap to count very much and you can see that he's

attacking the borders of the track just running a wheel over the edge.

Got to watch the kerbs though. Look how early he was on the five. He

touched the apex and he's immediately opening that and saying

to the car, I'm ready to go, are you.

Really aggressive and giving it everything. He's been on pole a

couple of times. He's just gone fastest in the middle sector, so

not necessarily the fastest lap overall but should be very much in

safe territory. Nice line there through turn 13, into 14. Listen.

Getting on the power. Let's watch him across the line. Third. That

should be plenty. The two Ferraris virtually identical lap times but

Massa a fraction faster than Alonso. Rosberg crosses the lain and goes

eighth. Massa have any negative thoughts year on year about this

track, that almost cost him his life, but you have got to say, it

doesn't show. A great performance. Anything that can beat an Alonso

lap time is an impressive time in my book. He's got to be brimming

with confidence, got to do it one more time though in Q3. The drop

zone at the moment, we have Perez, Senna, di Resta, Vergne. We have

got Schumacher and Maldonado. Top names in that drop zone currently.

It will be tough. Let's see where Kobayashi goes. Crosss the line,

he's only 13th. Doesn't look as though he'll be safe and di Resta

crosss the line. Button jumps up a bit into fifth. Di Resta is out of

the top ten. Vettel is tenth. He pops up to second.

Good luck. Webber crosses the line. Seventh. A little bit more marginal

for him. Webber down many the last sector. Managed to improve in the

first two sectors. Must have made a mistake or something else cost him

some time. Senna deciding to short shift out of the second last corner.

Was a little wide and you hear the difference on the applications, so

gentle. Relative to Alonso when you said he was feathering the throttle,

sounded more like he was punching it in the ribs. Perez has done

exactly the same time as Rosberg, but Rosberg is in the top ten and

Perez isn't. Maldonado, we have seen him get a pole. He inherited

it but has qualified extremely well. Can he get into Q3? Third fastest.

That pushes Senna to ninth. Raikkonen is fifth fastest, Michael

Schumacher still trying to get a lap in on this at all. He's way out

of it at the moment. Di Resta crosses the line, only 11th for di

Resta and that could be his last chance to get into the top ten.

Hulkenberg's not in the top ten either. Hulkenberg is fastest of

all in the middle sector, the sector that I say is the real

display of down force and draifr commitment. So this is looking like

a great lap from Hulkenberg -- driver committ. Hulkenberg puts a

great lap in and it pushes Senna back out of the top ten. Now, Senna

is still on a lap here. His first sector wasn't anything particularly

spectacular. Can he get back in? I don't think he can. Webber's been

pushed out. He's tenth. He can get back in. Webber is out of the top

ten. Big drama. Michael's backed out of it. He's 17th and not

completing this lap. He's out of the top ten as well. Some big

scalps have fallen here in Q2. Webber pushed out in the last

moment and both Williams for the first time this year in Q3. Ooh,

did he go all four wheels over? Did he gain an advantage? Got to ask

the question. Michael had to drive through the dust which didn't help

a lot. That was on the exit of the chicane. Was that just what

unsettled Michael? Mark Webber 11th and out of the rest of qualifying.

The margin that Hamilton had though, four tenths of a second around this

2.7 mile track. That is huge. Absolutely massive margin for Lewis

Hamilton. Stkpwhrfrpblgts Rosberg is not in the top ten, nor is

Michael Schumacher and we wondered, and you said you thought that they

might be struggling a little bit. That has been confirmed because

Rosberg is 13th, Schumacher though only 17th on the grid. The drivers

we've lost are Webber, di Resta, Rosberg, Perez, Kobayashi, Vergne

and Schumacher. Q2, how do you feel about it?

difficult. The car was working quite well in Q1 but we compromised

oirsts with a butt of track position on the out-lap and didn't

get the tyres. -- compromised ourselves. It affected the last

sector quite badly but we are in a reasonable position given that

everybody will have to start on a new set of options. Keck make the

decision overnight based on how warm the temperatures are. We can

optimise ourselves hopefully better. It wouldn't be Formula One without

a bit of rain, which there is talk of rain tomorrow? Yes, the more

forecasts that are coming it looks later but it can change any time.

It's that hot that I'm sure the thunder storms can swing up. We'll

play it by ear and try and maximise going to prevent Red Bull doing the

same here because he is he is looking so fast. But remember

Sebastian Vettel is looking for a hat trick of poles this. Is the

shootout for pole position and we have got cars going out on to the

track immediately. Nico Hulkenberg is going out. Hamilton, Jenson

Button, out on circuit straightaway. Gary, the question is what teams

have a brand-new set of tyres available to them? A lot of of

teams had to use their soft tyres to get here?

Yeah, well, looking at the two McLarens. The mac Clarence look as

if they are a used set. Lewis Hamilton should have a new set left.

the race. I don't think this is too bad a race tyre. They run

consistently. So they can put laps on this tyre

without damaging it too much despite track temperatures of 45

Celsius. Pirelli being more conservative with their tyre choice.

Because of the changeable weather conditions last year, we had rain

at the beginning of the race, they felt, "Let's not take the risk of

such an extreme tyre." We come this year, we had rain yesterday in the

afternoon, but today, scorching temperatures. The track temperature

45 Celsius and air temperature 30 Celsius.

Bruno Senna in Q3 for the first time this year. He has the other

Williams in there too. Last year, this was the circuit that he did

free practise for a top team for the first time because it was when

he went to Renault. He did free practise here and he was in the

race seat beyond that and he seems to be putting that practise to good

use. Lewis Hamilton here. Let's see if he gets the braking right into

turn one? Well, the answer is no. Oversteer. You try and use the

engine braking as much as possible to to supplement the brake that you

get from the retardation from the brakes and in that case it might

not have cost him too much time because he corrected, cat-like

reactions and he was getting good drive off the turn. Let's look at

his opening sector, 29.0. A bit of understeer through five. Yes, it is

good, but not the fastest. We have seen them in the 28s. Oh no, he has

gone off. He runs wide and gets back on again.

He bailed out of the lap. This won't be his best effort. He will

save the rest of the tyres on the rest of this lap. He has plenty of

clear track ahead. We go on board with Jenson Button. This is down

through turn 11. Running off line to allow a Lotus by which is never

a good thing to take your car. As we go on board. This is out of the

chicane. This is where we saw Maldonado run wide. He through it

in and the rear just wasn't there for him. He picked up dust on the

way out of the chicane and we can see that from the outside, of

course, he doesn't see that when he is in the car and commits to the

corner and that's what happens when you get get sand that sits in the

run-off area. That chicane caught him out last

year. He had a spin. Raikkonen went deep into the lap

there down into turn 12. He was quickest in the middle part of the

sector. This will be a scrappy end, but this should take him fastest in

this part of the session and indeed, it does.

1.22.7, but we have seen times in the 1.21, so we will see a lot

faster than that before the the session is over. It is the shortest

session as well. The time ticks away. Maldonado straight in.

Hamilton has set a new fastest first sector as we look at Ferrari,

there is not a lot happening and they have less tyres available and

they may do just the one run. I think they will. Massa

outqualified Alonso here last here. Is this a bogey track for Alonso?

He did take his first win here with Renault, but there is clearly

something that didn't really ignite his fire last year for Ferrari and

it looks like they are struggling. It doesn't look like they are in

the battle for pole position. Hamilton 21.2. A brilliant lap for

Lewis Hamilton. Let's see what Jenson Button does. Only third. Not

such a quick lap there from Jenson Button. He needs to be in the 1.21s,

he won't be satisfied with that. Ferrari, are they sending their

cars out or are they going to sit there and wait and perhaps, I mean

we have seen some teams this year just not bothering to go out at all

in the final part of qualifying. Well, saving tyres fort race, if

you don't feel you have got a chance of going for the pole then

save the tyres and track position as we have seen this year, the

majority of victories come from the front row. Bizarrely, three of the

last four victories have come from the dirty side of the track. We see

Sebastian Vettel warming up his tyres, building his lap, he has

Jenson Button just ahead of him who will more than likely be on an

inlap. Although Hamilton sits comfortably now, he will feel there

is more time there. Gary, what are your thoughts? Are

Ferrari going to get one run in? think they are putting all their

eggs in one basket. Do a run at the end when there is less cars. They

will go out as late as possible and minimum cars on the track.

Sebastian Vettel then, pole sitter for the last two years. Last year

he got into the 1.19s and the year before he was in the 1.18s, I don't

think we will see a lap time that fast this year. Sebastian Vettel

Goes on to the lap. Let's see if he can be neat and tidy into turn one?

A bit of oversteer and misses the apex and because it is open, that

might not cost him him too much turn two wider than he would like

and then flat out through three and up to this very tricky turn four.

TEAM RADIO: We need to get the first time lap. Maldonado doing

sent on his way. We're watching Sebastian Vettel here as he attacks

the circuit. Past the stands and baking in the sunshine in Hungary.

Not running wide and like Hamilton did a few laps ago. The car putting

the power down well here. A quick quick right-hander here. He is up

on the lap time. A great middle sector from Sebastian Vettel. Down

into turn 13 now. Ferraris are heading out on to the circuit and

now watch him into the last one. Picking up the power and out of the

final turn, running wide. Sebastian Vettel goes second. It is not

enough to beat the time that Hamilton has done. Remember this

year, we have seen Hamilton do an early lap, often in qualifying and

he did that in the first part of the year when he took two pole

positions. Has he done it again? Has he set a target that nobody can

beat? He is out again and this is a view on board with Senna. Let's

what happened. A big lock-up. one, maybe trying to preserve the

tyres, the down side is you go slowly, you don't get heat in your

brakes and the long straight, the longest part of the flat out

section on this racetrack and locks up. The Williams Renault took their

first ever pole position in 1989. Renault and Williams back together

this year and Maldonado has taken that one pole and he had the one

victory. The cars are getting out of his way here.

He is asking the team to tell him when cars are coming up behind.

The McLaren and the Red Bull get out of the way. Maldonado coming to

the end of the lap. Yes, wide there. I don't think this

is going to challenge Hamilton's time. Hamilton is still fastest.

Sebastian Vettel second. Grosjean third. Raikkonen is fourth. Senna

is sixth. Let's see where Maldonado is going to be? He goes fourth. A

good lap. Maldonado splits Grosjean and Button. He pushes Button back

down to fifth. We have seen a couple of front rows with the both

of them. Here is is Nico Hulkenberg for Force India. They haven't got a

great record in Hungary, Force India and he is wide.

This Is a scrappy middle sector. This is where he was fastest in the

previous session and he is two or three tenths down on that. This is

not going as well the second session.

Let's see, mainly these tyres have done a lap. We are not sure if he

went out on a new set. Crossing the line, he is seventh. Well if he

stays seventh, that would be Force India's best here. It is all over

for Sebastian Vettel. He is second. It is looking good unless we see a

surprise performance. Alonso is on track. Alonso is trying to move the

fer ar rary -- Ferrari further up in the top ten. Massa on a lap

currently. Out of the final turn, where is the championship leader

going to go? He crosses the line. He is fourth. He pushes Maldonado

down. Here comes Massa, can Massa outqualify his team-mate? He

crosses the line and he is fifth. The two Ferraris are fourth and

fifth. Jenson Button is going to try and improve on all of them.

Let's see whether this is enough and Grosjean is on a good lap as

well. He crosses the line. He is Sebastian Vettel second and Jenson

Button third and there is Lewis Hamilton. He is going to see if he

can put it out of reach. He is even faster. Hamilton on pole with a

1.20.9. Here comes Romain Grosjean, this could be faster. He is second

quickest. If he stay there is, it will be his best ever grid position

and Lotus will be celebrating a front row start, but Kimi Raikkonen

has not quite done enough. Everybody is completed. It is the

150th pole position for McLaren and it is Lewis Hamilton who has done

it again. We thought he done it in from him. But I think this time

David, they should get to keep their 150th pole. What a pole

position it was. It wasn't just scraping by by one or two tenths.

We have got a fantastic Grand Prix m teed up for tomorrow.

So Hamilton takes pole position with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean.

His best ever starting position. Vettel third. Button fourth. And

then Kimi Raikkonen fifth. So both Lotuses are up. The two Ferraris

are sixth and seventh. Nico Hulkenberg tenth. Mark Webber

outside the top ten. He will be starting from 11th. It really hurts

him today. Paul di Resta twelfth. Kobayashi, Vergne, Michael

Schumacher, and Ricciardo and Vitaly Petrov, de la Rosa. So Lewis

Lewis, I know it is noisy. Congratulations on your pole

position and 150th pole position for McLaren, you must be delighted?

Thank you. I am very, very proud of what me and the team have been able

to achieve today. This weekend has been very strong and yeah, Jenson

showed in the last race the competitiveness of the car and we

brought that here this weekend and it feels fantastic. The lap is a

beautiful track this and it was very, very flowing. A couple of

amendments to the last corner meant that the track is a lot more

consistent now and so much grip out there. It is awesome.

You looked like you owned this racetrack. Both your qualifying

runs were good enough. The confidence you must have had in the

car. There were little bits of oversteer at low speed, but

everything controlled? You always have a package and the job is to go

out there and put it to the limit. There were oversteer moments and

lots of corrections and I think the first lap I did in Q3, I was three

tenths up there, but I lost it with a big oversteer moment. The last

lap I did was a good competitor of that lap. The car has been

fantastic. I have been tweaking it gently to get the set-up just right

so it has just enough under steer and enough oversteer. That's the

maximum the car is going to do. I am sure we will get good upgrades.

Did you get a long run in this week? I did this week. A lot of

people did their long runs today. You know, our programme has gone

really, really well so far, but I am really, really looking forward

to watching the Olympics as well. What a great show they put on last

night It was amazing.

Congratulations. Instead of sleeping you were

watching the opening ceremony? watched a large part of it, but

Team GB was out late so I had to go to bed.

I saw you got to girlfriend ada? -- Grenada? A lot of my family were

born in Grenada. I like to represent for them and for the UK.

I hope it goes well tomorrow. For me today I've not been entirely

happy with the car. What we have changed for qualifying is stuff

that should help us more in the race than it will in qualifying.

But all in all, fourth and it wasn't a good performance today so

it shows that we've got some good pace. What were the track

conditions like? It was pretty hot, so there is a

big improvement through the session. The problem, is when you go flying,

if you have to let someone past, you get the tyres dirty and I

didn't feel that I cleaned mine for the start of the lap after letting

Maldonado past. I wish he did the same for me but he didn't. He has a

great record tharpbd circuit, won twice. I suppose it's the gap to

his team-mate which is making him feel a little down -- a great

record around this circuit? Half a second between team-mates, believe

me that hurts, especially around a technical track like this. It's

been consistently that gap and clearly the car's not giving him

the confidence that we know when he has he delivers. He's never had a

pole position for McLaren. Do you think that plays on his mind?

relative performance to his team- mate is the most important factor.

Of course, he's won Grand Prixs very early in his career for

McLaren. He knows his strength is his racing ability and to make key

decisions at times. I believe he's said before that Lewis Hamilton is

the guy he can really drag a time from a difficult car. Romain

Grosjean joins us now. Your best start this season? Yes, very good

qualifying. Didn't look very strong at the beginning of the weekend and

the team ended up doing a fantastic job. I got the confidence back into

it. We have been working very hard trying to understand what was wrong

since the last race and it's definitely that we are very happy

at what we've achieved. We have to start at the front. The race will

be another story but it's very hot. I hope the race pace will be good

again tomorrow as has been the case this year so far then we can fight

for the win. You say you were needing the

confidence to build during the weekend. It looks like you were

training Kimi for most of the practise session, so what gave you

that confidence later in the practise session? We were really

far to start with. That was strange. We came back and we managed to get

a good lap. There was a problem for me but we managed to get quicker.

Tell us, you have come so close to winning races this season,

particularly in Valencia. How much do you want this heading into, not

just the summer break obviously, but it would be great to have that

momentum and reignite your Championship races? It must be

something special. The first win must be delicious and the other

Championship must be something more. I hope tomorrow we can get the

first one done, but this is very much we don't know what is

happening in the race. The car will work very well with a perfect start

and strategy. If it's a problem, then it's not too bad as well to go

on holiday. There is talk of rain showers tomorrow. Is your car still

weather dependent? Does it still like the sunshine as most of us

does? I hope not. I hope it's not the case like it was last time when

we couldn't get a grip on the wet. I hope the summer stays on and that

we have a clean, proper race. Mixed fortunes for Red Bull but

today Webber didn't even make it out of Q2.

After going fastest in FB3 this morning, I don't think anybody

expected you to be knocked out at the end of Q2 Yeah, really

surprised. I was struggling to match my old scrub time in Q2 than

I was when I put the new set on which was very surprising. I did

not have the main grip from the tyre and the car and in the end,

you know, when the field's that tight, sometimes you are wondering

what the rest are doing and sometimes you are wondering what

you are doing and today was really disappointing because we went into

qualifying well, Q2r1 was good, Q1 was good, then we go to go den and

it didn't happen for us -- Q1 was good, Q2 was good. Mark not happy

with the car? That's a measure of how close Formula One is this year.

We have seen how close it is. When the drivers are hooked up and

confident, they can deliver that extra two or three tenths. When

they are not, you are fighting. Where do you think he was fighting

today? He was missing the apexes slightly. Flofs big lock-ups. On

the run-down to turn one, he spots his braking fair enough but he

dozen commit to the turn and in tend misses the apex by about half

a metre and gets away with it at turn one.

It just looks like he's, this you go, small correction there again,

once again a correction for oversteer, so contrasting

difficulties. Red Bull struggling with oversteers, Jenson Button for

example struggling with understeer as well. So much happens in the

bunch up? It's the messy part of the grid, you get the concertina

effect. He has the choice of tyres too. Top ten have to g with what

they qualified and that may prove crucial in this Grand Prix -- go

with what they qualifyed with. Vettel qualified third? It's

difficult. Up and down for myself. I judged the feeling I got in Q 1

and Q 2 and Q3. For Mark I'm not sure what happened. He obviously

missed by a little bit to get into Q3 which is a shame. But

nevertheless, I think for tomorrow, it will be a long race. We know

it's difficult to overtake here so we'll see what we can do from third

place. Hopefully we'll have a good start and yes, I think tyre

degradation and tyre management will be crucial, probably two or

three stops then we'll see what happens.

We have seen Fernando Alonso take pole position for the last three

Grand Prix but he had to take sixth today. What did you make of that

one? It was good, better than expected because we were worried

about Q3 possibilities with the Red Bull and McLaren. At the end, we

made it in Q 3 and six is a reasonable position. At the moment,

the Championship is Webber who is 11th so hopefully we can keep him

behind. Where do we put Ferrari after today? Fernando was so strong

at the last couple of races? Shows how much a difference that can make

here, a much more technical racetrack here and you haven't

really found any one sector with the cars performing well. Fernando

said he's pleased with his qualifying position so this is

about damage limitation, you won't get it right every time. Alonso's

already thinking where Webber, who is just behind him in the

Championship's qualify and he said, it doesn't matter, he's 11th.

knows he has the comfort zone of having more than a victory in hand.

He didn't win to World Championships by accident, but by

being a clever racing driver. We are in the second half of the

season. We are in race 11. He knows it's about damage limitation, get

out there, bring the car home and continue his 100% racing record.

A difficult day former say Indonesia. They came here with such

high hopes but it just didn't work out. Schumacher starting 17th?

weekend started badly. He crashed on Friday. He said it didn't affect

the performance of the car but Saturday running they weren't able

to balance it. He was having to compromise the set-up to get the

best out of the Pirellis. They've been saying how difficulties to get

the tyres up to temperature. Will that affect them on Sunday? Michael

wasn't able to get the confidence to carry speed into the corner.

He's ont run-down to turn one crucial here to start the lap well.

He already knows he's been cost time. Goes to lap two, same thing,

out on the dust and by this point, the lap's gone. Pretty much he

knows he'll have to back out of that lap and do another lap on the

tyres which will always compromise your time. A long race for Michael

tomorrow. A few surprises out there today. Here is Ben with a look at

So that is how they line up. Gary, you have pwhn talking a look at how

best the win the Grand Prix. What is the secret? Quite a few ways,

but for the tyre data, a two top race is the fastest way to do it,

three stops not far behind. The more stops you do, the more chance

there is of getting caught in slow traffic. A two and three stop and

maybe some guys in midfield going for the one stop to try to stay out

the traffic. So basically anything can happen. We have heard that

before haven't we?! So we are spoiled for sport at the moment. If

you would like to watch the Olympic coverage, it continues on BBC One

and HD. We are back tomorrow at 5 o'clock on BBC One and HD for the

high lielts andry action from the Hungarian Grand Prix. -- highlights.

This is a race that rarely disappoints. What can we expect

tomorrow? Lewis Hamilton's looked supreme. Can he sustain that over

the Grand Prix? My feeling is if he gets off the line, he can, but Red

Bull, as we know, and Vettel, have a strong car as well. Grosjean,

who'd bet against Lotus getting their first win. It's a hard race

this, physically tough, tyre strategy is going to be absolutely

crucial. There is the talk as well that we might get the big storm

which has been brewing up nicely. It's heading this way, we are going

to have to get our rain coats out again?! They would be terribly

disappointing for us and Lotus as well, but it would be a good thing

for Ferrari, of course, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso too.

Heading into the summer break, is this when in some ways it's more

important because you get the momentum and the confidence boost

when you have had a few weeks off? They know they've broke tn back of

the halfway point in the season and are down to nine races after this

one - ten. G karying a good result here is important for the drivers

that want to take the battle to Alonso to peg him back. What would

your hard-earned money be on tomorrow? Lewis Hamilton looks like

the most likely. Thank you very much for your company. After a

horrible 100th Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to make 101