- Hungarian GP - Qualifying
'No question' Hamilton would have won - Lauda
Niki Lauda is certain Lewis Hamilton would have claimed pole position and gone on to win tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix were it not for the fire in Q1 which sees him start at the back row of the grid.
A fuel leak for Hamilton's Mercedes caused a massive fire in the opening stages of qualifying and forced him to pull up in the pit lane without setting a time. Hamilton, who topped all three practice sessions, has four previous victories to his name at the Hungaroring and Mercedes non-executive chairman Lauda thinks he would have made that five on Sunday without the issue in Q1.
"It's very unfair, things are really difficult for him," said Lauda. "He would have been fastest today and would have won the race tomorrow, no question. Now it doesn't look like it."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he is determined to get to the bottom of the issue and that he feels for Hamilton, who has had the lion's share of bad luck in the team this season.
"I'm extremely upset for Lewis because if I'm not wrong this is the fourth reliability issue he has had this year," Wolff said. "The championship is very tight and it's a shame for him. We must solve the reliability problems. We have set up a group of quality management which is already implemented and it is not something we will accept, we will tackle that very hard in order to get on top of these problems.
"We had various issues in Hockenheim; we had a brake-disc failure which wasn't exactly the fault of the team and sometimes we need to find out what happened. It's not always clear where it comes from; it's sometimes on the chassis side, sometimes on the power unit side, sometimes the supplier."
It was later confirmed Hamilton would start from the pit lane for Sunday's race.
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