• Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Red Bulls romp to front row in Hungary

ESPNF1 Staff
July 31, 2010
Sebastian Vettel beat team-mate Mark Webber to pole © Getty Images
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The Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber did exactly as expected by dominating qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

A class apart from the rest of the field all weekend, the only question was which one of the team's drivers would win the race to pole and Vettel grabbed the honour by setting a fastest lap of 1:18.773 to edge out his team-mate.

Ferrari cemented its status as 'best of the rest' behind the Red Bulls with Fernando Alonso taking third on the grid ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton lines up fifth on the grid ahead of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes but their respective team-mates endured a difficult session.

The biggest casualty of qualifying was reigning world champion Jenson Button, the McLaren man missing out on Q3 having struggled to find a good balance with his car on the circuit that gave him his first grand prix victory. Although Button lines up a disappointing 11th on the grid for Sundays race, his long-run pace has always been his forte and he has surged through the field from similar starting positions this season.

"The car was working well and we had a good balance in practice but in qualifying I couldn't find a great balance," said Button. "It was not a good qualifying but I start on the clean side of the track with a new set of tyres and I hope can have a good race tomorrow. We just didn't have the grip this afternoon."

Michael Schumacher endured an even worse time of things, the Mercedes man lining up an unaccustomed 14th on the grid. Another disappointed driver will be Kamui Kobayashi, the clearly frustrated Sauber driver missing out on Q2 having aborted his final charge after being held up by an HRT.

In contrast, Renault's rookie Vitaly Petrov excelled and out-qualified his more experienced team-mate Robert Kubica. The latter made a mistake on his single attempt at a flying lap as the Renault team was down to one set of fresh soft tyres per car in Q3 after a tight fight in Q2. Petrov's lap was far from perfect but was still enough for him to claim his best qualifying performance of the season.

Pedro de la Rosa was ninth, proving the Sauber's pace, and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten. Hulkenberg's Williams team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished12th, ahead of Adrian Sutil in the Force India. A disappointing qualifying for Tonio Liuzzi will see him line up 16th on the grid tomorrow, splitting the two Toro Rossos.

Timo Glock led the battle of the new teams in 19th for Virgin, with Mike Gascoyne admitting that neither Lotus driver got the most from his car. HRT will make up the last two rows after an improved performance by Sakon Yamamoto saw him qualify within a tenth of team-mate Bruno Senna.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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