Hungaroring, 28 July

In the dim and distant past of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the race would almost always be won by the pole sitter, or at least a driver who enjoyed the luxury of starting from the first two rows. This was mainly down to the tight and twisty nature of the Magyar track. However, since 2005, only one race has been won by the man on the number one grid slot, so maybe this can come as some consolation for Fernando Alonso who, having been on pole in Silverstone and Germany, will start from the third row in sixth place tomorrow. The Ferrari man’s performance in qualifying was not exactly a surprise to the team, as it was clear all weekend that other cars had the edge over the F2012 when it came to outright pace. Fernando admitted his lap was not perfect, but even so, it’s unlikely he could have improved his grid position by much: remember, those last two poles came in the wet, when car performance is very much evened out.

There are other positives to be seen in today’s result, starting with the fact that Felipe Massa is just one place behind his team-mate and in a lap time that was just a few hundredths off the Spaniard’s pace. If the idea for the second half of the season is that Felipe can do his cause and that of the Scuderia and Fernando a lot of good by taking points off our rivals, then tomorrow, he is well placed to do just that. Furthermore, the Spaniard’s closest pursuer in the championship, trailing by 34 points, is Mark Webber and the Australian did not have a great afternoon, failing to make the cut to Q3 in his Red Bull and so he starts eleventh tomorrow.


At the front, Lewis Hamilton who has been very quick all weekend, took his third pole position of the season in the McLaren, while alongside him, Romain Grosjean in the Lotus makes his first ever appearance on the front row of a Formula 1 grid. The second row sees Sebastian Vettel third for Red Bull, and Jenson Button fourth in the other McLaren, while Fernando finds himself on the outside of fifth placed Kimi Raikkonen in the second Lotus. So what can the Ferrari duo rely on to see them take the chequered flag in much better positions than they will be in 70 laps earlier at the start? Well, there’s the F2012’s excellent ability at getting off the line, the fact the red cars invariably run stronger over a race distance than in qualifying and the real possibility of a summer rain storm at some point in the afternoon, to produce a variety of unknown factors. Whatever the outcome, Fernando will still be leading the Drivers’ classification on Sunday night as F1 heads into the summer break. The question is will his lead be increased, diminished or the same?