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Title : Hungarian GP: All you need to know about Lewis Hamilton's masterclass
link : Hungarian GP: All you need to know about Lewis Hamilton's masterclass

Hungarian GP: All you need to know about Lewis Hamilton's masterclass

The rain came to rescue for Lewis Hamilton, just as it had in Germany a week ago.

In the dry, Hamilton's title rival Sebastian Vettel looked a certain bet for pole in a Ferrari that was perfectly poised and balanced, while Hamilton's Mercedes was skittish and nervous, so much so that both he and team-mate Valtteri Bottas spun in final practice.

But a wet track levelled the playing field and Hamilton, as he so often does, excelled.

His pole lap was 0.26secs quicker than Bottas, and 0.812secs fast than Vettel, who starts fourth, having qualified just 0.024secs slower than team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

"The rain was a blessing," Hamilton said. "I had no idea I would be shooting for the front row and pole. I couldn't be happier. It is quite a shock, really. I was not expecting to be here."

It sets up an enticing race. If it is dry, as expected, the two slower front-running cars are starting in front of the two faster ones, and Vettel really needs to make the most of a circuit that should have been a slam-dunk win to cut Hamilton's championship lead.

Right now, that stands at 17 points, but if Hamilton wins on Sunday, it will go out to nearly a clear win. There are still nine races to go after Hungary, and some will definitely favour Ferrari, but that sort of margin is a significant psychological hurdle even if it is not a huge mathematical one.

Both Hamilton and Bottas indicated they expect to fight something of a rear-guard battle in the race. In their favour is that overtaking is harder at Hungary than perhaps anywhere other than Monaco.

"It will mean it is quite a close race," Hamilton said. "It is going to be close. It is going to be hard to keep the tyre temperatures under control. I cannot tell you what is going to happen; we just have to get our heads down and try to pull away."

Bottas added that simulation runs in Friday practice suggested Mercedes were slower than both Ferrari and Red Bull on race pace.

"From our numbers, we were the third-quickest team on the long runs," Bottas said, "so I think we really need to get everything perfect from the race start.

"It's going to be really hot, a really long race, so… yeah, overtaking is difficult but there's many opportunities for the cars behind to get us if they have more speed. So we really need to be on it."

Where did Ferrari's pace go?
Vettel looked imperious throughout practice and had been very confident of pole had it remained dry and hot.

"In the dry, we were pretty much in control. But the race is long, so we see what we can do," he said. "We are starting fourth so we focus on winning from fourth."

For the most part the qualifying hour was anything but dry, and Ferrari's pace bled away.

Vettel topped the first and second segments, but the first ended on a drying track, and in the second Ferrari pulled a strategic masterstroke - or got lucky, depending on your point of view - by sending Vettel out on intermediates straight away.

Everyone else went out on slicks only to find a soaking track in the final sector, and need to pit immediately.

That meant Vettel got the best of the conditions, and he topped the session by two seconds from Renault's Carlos Sainz, who was highly impressive throughout and ended up fifth on the grid.

In the top-10 shootout, though, the conditions were bad enough for full-wet tyres and Hamilton and Bottas were in control.

On the face of it, this does not make sense. The Ferrari's pace on this track comes from it having greater downforce in a high-downforce configuration - which is why it was quicker than the Mercedes in Monaco, and is expected to be again in Singapore in September.

More downforce should also help in the wet, and yet suddenly the Ferraris were slower. Why would that be, this writer asked Vettel afterwards?

"It is not always that straightforward," he said. "I see where you are coming from. Obviously we did not have much running in the wet so far this year and the little bit we have, we have some work still to do.

"It wasn't awful. It is not a disaster to start third and fourth, but we certainly want to be ahead. In the dry, it could have been a different outcome, but it wasn't dry. And we need to make sure also in the wet we are there."

A pause. "Sorry, I can't really answer."

Because you don't know?

"Well, I think I know, but…"

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff believes the answer is a mundane one - tyre temperature in wet conditions. Mercedes had their tyres just-so, and it seems Ferrari may not have done.

That certainly applied to Red Bull, whose driver Max Verstappen, normally outstanding in the wet, had tyre temperatures far lower than optimum and ended up down in seventh.

Of course, Hamilton's peerless wet-weather skills cannot be underestimated.

And Bottas was pretty good, too.

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