Hungarian Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Ocon led the way in qualifying successfully steering his VF-26 from Q1 into Q2 with a fast lap of 1:20.010 on a second set of fresh Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires. The Frenchman banked a 1:20.315 to start Q2 on used softs before clocking a 1:19.734 on a new set – Ocon holding P15 on exiting the session.

Bearman also ran two new sets of softs in Q1 – his fastest lap, a 1:20.233, placing the British driver P17 at the checkered flag.

McLaren’s Lando Norris completed a clean sweep on Saturday, having gone fastest in final practice (FP3) before topping the timesheets at the end of all three qualifying segments. Norris claimed pole position with a quick lap of 1:17.207 around the 4.381-kilometer (2.722-mile), 14-turn circuit.

Ollie Bearman:

“To be honest I felt like I’ve been hanging on all weekend ever since I jumped back in the car in FP2, it’s been a real struggle. The balance has been really unpredictable, and honestly it’s disappointing because all that progress I felt we made in Spa, it feels like we’re back to square one now. I’ve just been really struggling to feel any confidence with this car and it’s shown in the result today.”

Esteban Ocon:

“I’m very happy with the work we’ve done this weekend. We didn’t run into any strange issues with straight-line speed, rear downforce or weird front downforce which we’ve seen in the past – the car stayed consistent. The team did a great job taking the car apart on Friday night and putting it back to the same that it was. We could build from FP1 and have a normal weekend, fine-tuning here and there, and it’s very satisfying for all of us to have extracted the maximum from the package today. There’s nothing more we could have done in terms of positioning, we’re half a second away from the car in front, so there’s no way we could’ve done that. Now we’ll look to the next step, which is to bring more performance to the car – so we’ll see if we can do that in the near future. We’ll take today as a satisfaction for my side of the garage, and for the whole team it’s good confidence, so we need to build on that.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Today’s similar to yesterday with a mixed result. An absolute qualifying position of P15 and P17 isn’t great, but if you look into the details, it’s positive that Esteban was happy with the car from FP1 and the car’s been consistent. Sometimes we have days like Spa where he was happy on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday he wasn’t. This weekend since FP1 to qualifying his car’s been consistent and he was happy with the characteristics, so he’s been able to build up to it. I believe he got the most out of the car in Q1 and Q2, so P15 is the reflection of the performance we’ve got – so that’s what we need to improve.

“On the flip side, you’ve got Ollie taking over the car from Ryō in FP2, and immediately he wasn’t happy with the car compared to Spa. We haven’t really been able to make progress on that today in FP3 or qualifying. It’s been a bit better than yesterday, but he’s still really struggling on that, and he was out in Q1. We all know what he’s capable of, it’s the car that’s preventing him from getting to the limit. We really need to understand that one, that’s the ongoing issue we’ve been having lately. Unfortunately, it’s nothing new, but it confirms that we’ve got this balance migration issue. For the race it’s going to be very hot, possibly 50 degrees track temperature, so I think we need to look at different tire usage, and people may have different strategies as well, so we’ll do our best to get the most out of the car. We’ve just got to be there to take advantage if anything happens in front of us. Overnight we’ll be working on trying to get the car balance as best as possible for tomorrow, and looking to go forwards.”