Hamilton thanks the rain: reactions from the top 3 at the Hungaroring!
The Brit surprised everyone in the rain on the Hungarian track. The rain came to save his pole ambitions after a difficult start against the Scuderia rivals. Also check out the reactions of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen, who are once again second and third on the grid.
The time was not for celebration for the Silver Arrows and particularly for Hamilton since the beginning of the weekend in Hungary. His car did not seem to obey him as he wished, and he was spinning again in the final minutes of Free Practice this morning.
The rain completely reshuffled the deck, and the Mercedes team locked out the front row, whereas a 100% Ferrari front row was shaping up after the dry track practice sessions. Fourth in Q1 and Q2, the driver with the number 44 put everything together in Q3 to clinch this pole position.
« We honestly couldn’t have expected this. The Ferraris were faster all weekend, then the gates of heaven opened and we were all on equal footing. » While it was nearly impossible to see with the water spray and that thrown up by the cars, the Brit managed to find a way through. « It was so complicated. Especially at the end in Q3. There was only one line to follow on wet tires. »
Lewis Hamilton 🗣️ “It’s great for the team to have a one-two, jeez, we couldn’t have expected this. The heavens opened and it was fair game”
📸 @latimages pic.twitter.com/Qy8TzNQI5e
— Autosport (@autosport) 28 juillet 2018
Behind him, Valtteri Bottas allows Mercedes to secure a new one-two on the starting grid.
« It’s a double for the team. Now I’m already looking towards tomorrow’s race. » The Finn is pragmatic and shows no emotion in his statement. For him, the job is done even if one might think he expected to be ahead of his teammate considering the whole weekend. As in Castellet, he will have the task of defending Hamilton at the start, hoping for less aggression from Sebastian Vettel. This memory is not so distant for him. « We’ll try to make a good start, up to the first corner! », he says.
In third place, Kimi Räikkönen shows slight disappointment.
The conditions did not play in favor of the Scuderia, which did not discourage the Finn. It was nice to drive in the rain, indeed the race direction had lost the habit of letting drivers fight as soon as conditions became difficult. Provisional pole before the successful attempts of Bottas and Hamilton, Räikkönen is left wanting. I think I was unlucky on the last lap, I ended up behind the Haas cars.
Kimi is serving Blue Steel looks 😂#HungarianGP 🇭🇺
📸 @latimages pic.twitter.com/3hCm2Xf9z2
— Autosport (@autosport) 28 juillet 2018
