George Claims Maiden Pole Position in Hungary
George secured his first ever F1 pole position in qualifying for tomorrow’s Hungarian GP with a stunning lap, while Lewis suffered a DRS failure on his crucial run in Q3 and will start in P7.
After a challenging Q1 and Q2, both drivers managed to get the tyres working in an optimal window for the top ten shoot-out.
This is the team’s first pole position since Saudi Arabia 2021 and the first pole position in George’s career. Mercedes becomes the first engine manufacturer to have poles in 26 consecutive F1 seasons by securing pole position for tomorrow.
George Russell
I’m over the moon and absolutely buzzing. Yesterday was disastrous for us and probably the worst Friday of the season. The team was working so hard last night and we were able to make a big step forward. In Formula 1 there are so many fine margins and when you get in that perfect window, your car will just fly, which we managed to do in today’s conditions. We didn’t know what direction to go in but on the last lap I came across the line, looked at the screen and saw we went P1, which was such an incredible feeling. We need to look into our performance from today and understand where it came from. We have a few ideas, but don’t fully understand it yet. Getting this result today is really huge for all of us. I’m so happy for the whole team and we will do our best to have a great day tomorrow and give it our all.
Lewis Hamilton
My DRS stopped working, which was frustrating after all the struggle we had to finally have the chance to fight for front row but then not being able to, because of the issues with the DRS. We did a lot of work overnight at track and back at the factory. The car didn’t feel good in FP3, but was strong in Qualifying. We didn’t know how strong our pace was and where it came from so it’s a very positive day for us. I will do what I can tomorrow to support and contribute to us in winning from P7 and I will try and work my way up. I don’t know where our race pace is going to be tomorrow, but hopefully we will be in a position to attack. Huge congratulations to George, it’s an amazing feeling to get your first pole position and it’s also huge for us as a team.
Toto Wolff
From the start of Q3 we had the tyres in the right window, the car was balanced, and everything came together well, with both George and Lewis getting more confident lap after lap. We haven’t been in the hunt for a win this season and we know how strong our competitors are so being on pole is a solid result for us and if we have the right pace in the race tomorrow, I wouldn’t rule out that we can be part of the front again and have a chance of winning. For Lewis, it was so tough – his DRS failed just at the crucial moment, otherwise he would have been fighting up there with George for pole position, no doubt.
Andrew Shovlin
Well done to George on his first pole position and the team on their first pole with the W13. It was a strong session for both drivers. In the early stages it didn’t look like we quite had the pace to fight for the top spot but as the session went on it seemed to be coming towards us and the times were just getting better and better. George put together an awesome lap at the end for pole position. Lewis on the other hand had a DRS issue at the worst possible time when he was starting his only new tyre lap, right now we don’t know why we had the problem, but we’ll investigate as soon as we get the car back. Prior to qualifying the weekend has been tough for us, we looked reasonable in first practice but struggled in second and third practice so the pace this afternoon was a bit of a surprise. We’ll need to see how our single lap form translates into the race tomorrow. We’ve been getting closer but at recent races we’ve not quite had the pace over the stint to match RedBull or Ferrari. We’re expecting it to be tough tomorrow but it’s another encouraging sign that we are slowly but surely moving in the right direction and further motivation to the team to keep up the hard work.