Budapest, 26 July

Mixed fortunes for Scuderia Ferrari in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. When the lights go out at 2pm tomorrow, Fernando Alonso will start from fifth on the grid, while Kimi could do no better than 17th, after taking a strategic gamble that didn’t pay off.
The sky looked threatening at the start of Q1, with the forecast claiming a 30% chance of rain. There was drama right away, as Pastor Maldonado stopped his Lotus at the side of the track and Lewis Hamilton had to park his Mercedes at the entrance to pit lane with a fire at the rear, not even having set a time.
Midway through Q1, Fernando was comfortably in a Q2 position, with Kimi 14th. The team then decided to keep the Finn in the garage, confident that the Caterhams and Marussias would not manage to beat his 1.26.792, which would have seen Kimi no lower than 16th. However, Jules Bianchi put in a great lap which meant that, by just a handful of hundredths, Raikkonen failed to make the cut to Q2. Now, the Finn has nothing to lose and will be attacking all the way in tomorrow’s race.
Alonso then proceeded into the final part of the session which started on a damp track, as a few drops of rain had begun to fall. He managed a 1.23.909, which would be good enough for fifth place on the grid. Ahead of him, Nico Rosberg took his tenth career pole in the Mercedes, with a time of 1.22.715, followed by Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull,) Valtteri Bottas (Williams) and Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull.)