Sebastian Vettel claimed his eighth pole position of the season in this weekend’s qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, pipping Lewis Hamilton by just over a tenth of a second. Jenson Button showed some improved Saturday form by placing third, while Felipe Massa out-qualified Fernando Alonso for the first time this season – the Ferraris start fourth and fifth. Mark Webber was the session’s biggest under-performer in sixth, while Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Sergio Perez also scraped into the top ten.
Though it’s hardly surprising to see Vettel at the front of the pack, many had Hamilton marked down for his first pole of the season, after he clocked some searing times in free practice. Alas, in the dying seconds of Q3, the world champion delivered his quickest lap of the afternoon to maintain Red Bull’s 100% pole position record for 2011. Still, there’s always the chance Lewis can get the jump off the line like he did in Germany, right? Probably not. Not only is Vettel a lot better getting away than his teammate, there’s also the fact that Lewis will start the race on the dirty side of the track – a huge disadvantage, so the history books say.
Here’s how they’ll line up tonight:
1. Sebastian Vettel
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Jenson Button
4. Felipe Massa
5. Fernando Alonso
6. Mark Webber
7. Nico Rosberg
8. Adrian Sutil
9. Michael Schumacher
10. Sergio Perez
11. Paul Di Resta
12. Vitaly Petrov
13. Kamui Kobayashi
14. Nick Heidfeld
15. Rubens Barrichello
16. Jaime Alguersuari
17. Pastor Maldonado
18. Heikki Kovalainen
19. Jarno Trulli
20. Timo Glock
21. Vitantonio Liuzzi
22. Daniel Ricciardo
23. Sebastien Buemi
24. Jerome d’Ambrosio