Bela Szandelszky/Associated PressSebastian Vettel of the Red Bull team scored pole position at the Hungaroring for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
BUDAPEST — “Yes! Yes!” shouted Sebastian Vettel in his car on his wind-down lap on Saturday after scoring pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The German driver nabbed the pole in the final seconds of Saturday’s qualifying session, in the dominant Red Bull team car. Lewis Hamilton was second fastest, in the McLaren Mercedes. Hamilton had been on the provisional pole position until those final moments when Vettel took it from him by a tenth of a second.
The Red Bull team had worked longer in the garage on Friday to change the setup of the car. Vettel and his teammate, Mark Webber, had been finding the Red Bull car a bit sluggish. Webber qualified only sixth; we can see the difference a driver makes.
“Especially after yesterday when these boys were faster than us, I think we did the right thing,” Vettel said. “We changed a lot on the car and the boys were working very hard and didn’t get much sleep.”
Jenson Button, the other McLaren driver, qualified third. Felipe Massa qualified fourth in his Ferrari, one spot higher than his teammate, Fernando Alonso. Just a couple of years ago, Massa suffered a terrible head injury at this track.
What does it mean for the race? Are Red Bull and Vettel are back to the top again? Anything can happen.