As it happened: 2011 Hungary - Qualifying

• 12:30

  Hello and welcome to the Factbyte Factbox. Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix begins in about half an hour.

• 12:31

  So far, we've seen Lewis Hamilton leading both Free Practice sessions on Friday, with Sebastian Vettel fastest this morning.

• 12:31

  Red Bull also broke their curfew overnight, taking one out of their allowance to do so. I wonder what they've been working on.

• 12:32

  Despite a bit of fallibility showing in Red Bull's performances recently, they still have a stranglehold on pole position. 7-3 in Vettel's favour. Can anyone else take it from them today?

• 12:33

  If you're watching qualifying today, why not join in the comments? https://sidepodcast.com/dashboard is a fabulous way to see Twitter, FBFB and the comments all in one.

• 12:34

  Or you can visit the thread directly: https://sidepodcast.com/post/live-hungary-2011-qualifying

• 12:34

  Whilst I am linking you up, here's live timing: http://www.formula1.com/live_timing/

• 12:35

  Autosport's live text: http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/385 and the BBC's: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9551994.stm

• 12:36

  Fastest Session Times

  Free Practice 1	Hamilton	1:23.350
  Free Practice 2	Hamilton	1:21.018
  Free Practice 3	Vettel	1:21.168

• 12:36

  Tweet from @sarahholtf1: McLaren are changing the brakes on Hamilton's car ahead of qualifying. Team are still feeling positive.

• 12:37

  Tweet from @radarguruf1: #F1 weather update 13:05 CET: Mainly sunny conditions continuing through qualifying. Max air temp 23c, track should hit 40c during session.

• 12:38

  McLaren and Mercedes both have live data on their sites: http://mclaren.com/formula1 and http://www.mercedes-gp.com/

• 12:38

  If you want to catch up with any of the action from yesterday, there's a 60 second roundup here: https://sidepodcast.com/news/lewis-hamilton-leads-both-free-practice-sessions-in-hungary

• 12:39

  Tweet from @torquef1: @factbytefactbox RBR changed the config to the one(s) used in the previous race(s) according to the BBC guys

• 12:43

  Looking a bit cloudy as the session draws near, via @OfficialLRGP.

• 12:48

  Back in the car this weekend, after handing over to Chandhok in Germany, Jarno Trulli is suddenly very happy with his car. The power steering has been fixed!

• 12:49

  David Coulthard, on the BBC coverage, says a good lap time will be defined by how a driver does in the middle sector, it's where the driver can make the most difference.

• 12:52

  Vitaly Petrov is the star of the Beeb's track walk, making his way round the circuit with DC. He seems pretty comfortable with the track, and considers it something of a home race.

• 12:53

  At the last corner before the home straight, Petrov says: "This tarmac is completely different from all around the track, it's much more green. Just on this particular corner."

• 12:53

  That is also the exact spot where the DRS zones will be tomorrow.

• 12:54

  Tweet from @clubforce: The midfield fight is going to be tough this afternoon. But we're ready to battle for our place hopefully in Q3.

• 12:56

  

  22°C

  Track	28°C
  Humidity	50%
  Wind speed	7mps

• 12:56

  The lap record around the Hungaroring is held by Michael Schumacher who posted a 1:19.071 for Ferrari back in 2004.

• 12:57

  Tweet from @InsideFerrari: Temperatures are similar to FP3, maybe one degree lower at the moment but it depends on the sunny spells

• 12:58

  TedNews: Hamilton's brake change is back to Brembo, and he also has bigger cooling ducts around the brakes than Button because he's harder on brakes.

• 12:59

  Sébastian Buemi has a five place grid penalty after his accident in Germany with Nick Heidfeld. Wherever he qualifies today, he'll drop down the order.

• 13:00

  Qualifying session 1 begins.

• 13:00

  Daniel Ricciardo is the first driver out on track for HRT.

• 13:01

  His teammate Tonio Liuzzi joins him out on track, the rest of the field remaining in the garage at the moment.

• 13:02

  Tweet from @MyTeamLotus: Qualifying. Still the real test of true driver talent. Let's see what tyre choices we can influence further up the field....

• 13:03

  Ah ha, more cars start filing out of the garages. Both Red Bull drivers are out on track, along with Force India and Virgin Racing.

• 13:04

  Liuzzi goes faster than his teammate, setting a 1:27.850. Two times on the board so far.

• 13:05

  The two HRT cars return to the pitlane, whilst the rest pile out. Just Ferrari and Jarno Trulli remain in the garage now.

• 13:06

  Sebastian Vettel instantly puts his mark on proceedings, dropping the times drastically to 1:22.387.

• 13:06

  Webber's first lap is almost a second behind him.

• 13:07

  Lewis Hamilton goes even faster - 1:21.636 on the soft tyres.

• 13:07

  Martin Brundle suggests the supersoft tyres are about eight tenths faster than the soft tyres.

• 13:07

  The sidewalls are red for supersofts and yellow for softs.

• 13:08

  12 minutes to go, all 24 cars out on track.

• 13:09

  The times are so vastly different that there has been talk that the 107% barrier could come into play this weekend.

• 13:10

  Hamilton has returned to the garage, still holding on to his P1 slot for the moment.

• 13:10

  All drivers have set times now, the drop zone includes Alonso, Glock, Ricciardo, D'Ambrosio, Kovalainen and Liuzzi and Trulli, who would be outside the 107% at this juncture.

• 13:10

  Presumably Alonso is working on improving from 18th place.

• 13:11

  TedNews: Ferrari are hoping for a front row start, Alonso has been struggling in sector one, so they spent the last practice concentrating on that sector.

• 13:12

  Alonso improves to 4th. The drop zone features the expected names, along with Buemi now.

• 13:13

  The cars return to the pitlane, with just four drivers remaining out on track. Seven minutes to go.

• 13:13

  Alonso and Massa are trying to improve their times, as is Barrichello, whilst Webber dives into the pitlane.

• 13:14

  Alonso sets a new fastest time - 1:21.578 - knocking Lewis Hamilton to second.

• 13:14

  Replays show Liuzzi running wide at the exit of turn three. Some debris flew off against the kerb and a marshal dashed out to retrieve it.

• 13:15

  Sébastian Buemi waits in the garage for another attempt, he chats with his engineer who leans right into the car, rather than using the radio. He leaves the garage now.

• 13:16

  The Mercedes drivers, Schumacher and Rosberg, are 7th and 8th currently. The top seven are still in the garage - will they bother to come out again?

• 13:16

  Just under four minutes remain.

• 13:16

  Schumacher and Rosberg have both exited the garage for another lap, top six remain in the garage.

• 13:16

  Team radio to Jaime Alguersuari: "Do not release KERS until just after the last corner."

• 13:17

  All the drivers from 7th place down are out, except Jarno Trulli who is currently 19th.

• 13:17

  And Trulli joins in the fun. It's busy out there.

• 13:18

  Glock improves to 21st place, just behind Kovalainen and ahead of Ricciardo.

• 13:18

  The pressure is still on Sébastian Buemi, but he crosses the line and remains 18th and in the dropzone.

• 13:18

  Comment from Ben M: 24th place Liuzzi only 0.03 seconds inside the 107% rule...

• 13:19

  Paul di Resta and Nico Rosberg have pitted from 9th and 10th. With a minute to go, they must be happy with their first session.

• 13:20

  Liuzzi improves to 22nd place. There's almost half a second to the 107% time now. Not a problem.

• 13:20

  Qualifying session 1 ends.

• 13:20

  A peek into the garage shows Adrian Newey having a good look at the rear of Sebastian Vettel's car.

• 13:20

  Buemi has improved to 17th, dropping Maldonado into the drop zone, but the Williams driver is on a lap now.

• 13:21

  Maldonado jumps up to 17th, swapping that place right back with Buemi. The Toro Rosso driver was also on a lap, but he's abandoned it and comes into the pits.

• 13:22

  Qualifying Position

  18	Sébastian Buemi	Toro Rosso
  19	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus
  20	Jarno Trulli	Lotus
  21	Timo Glock	Virgin
  22	Tonio Liuzzi	HRT
  23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT
  24	Jérôme D'Ambrosio	Virgin

• 13:22

  Newey investigates Vettel's car.

• 13:24

  With Buemi's five place penalty, he'll start 23rd on the grid tomorrow.

• 13:24

  Tweet from @eddstrawF1: That session clearly showed us that option tyres are at a premium. Will be a fair few trying to get through Q2 on only one run if possible

• 13:24

  Tweet from @clubforce: Good job in Q1 guys. Adrian P7 and Paul P9. Keep pushing for Q2.

• 13:26

  Interview with Jarno Trulli. On the power steering: "It's like night and day for me. It's much, much better. I was quick all weekend. Unfortunately didn't get it right in the qualifying... but up to this morning was very good so I'm confident for the rest of the season now."

• 13:26

  Trulli on giving his car to Chandhok: "To be honest, we discussed with Tony, there was nothing I could gain because the power steering was ready, we gave Karun a chance to have a run. I was standing out but waiting for this time and I'm happy now."

• 13:26

  And Trulli on if he'd want to stay with the team: "I'm really fired up with this new power steering, it's a brand new season for me starting. I think we can still do it." Not sure what they can still do, but he seems very much happier.

• 13:27

  Qualifying session 2 begins.

• 13:27

  Fifteen minutes, and no cars make a break for it instantly.

• 13:28

  TedNews: Whatever the problem was with the rear wing of Vettel's car has been fixed. They can't replace it. The little bit they were looking at was the join at the back of the rear wing where the DRS mounting is.... They say it's all fine, but Mark Webber did change his rear wing between Free Practice and qualifying.

• 13:29

  Two minutes gone and it's Paul di Resta and Sebastian Vettel who head out on track first.

• 13:30

  Sebastian Vettel has put the supersofts on already.

• 13:31

  11 cars are now out on track, the first lap time is about to be posted.

• 13:31

  Tweet from @InsideFerrari: Fernando has just left the garage, Super SOfts fitted

• 13:32

  Sebastian Vettel posts a 1:21.095. I'd have been expecting faster than that.

• 13:32

  All drivers participating in this are out and about except for Pastor Maldonado.

• 13:33

  Lewis Hamilton goes second on the harder tyres, whilst Webber posts the first 1:20 time on those supersofts.

• 13:34

  Jenson Button goes even faster, 1:20.578, presumably he has the softer tyres on compared to Lewis.

• 13:34

  McLaren confirm that JB was on softs, LH on harder tyres.

• 13:35

  Meanwhile, Alonso has posted a new P1 - 1:20.262.

• 13:35

  There are four drivers without a time, Maldonado still has not emerged from the pitlane.

• 13:35

  With six minutes to go, the drop zone features Perez, Alguersuari, Kobayashi, Di Resta, Sutil, Barrichello and of course, Maldonado.

• 13:36

  Team radio to Hamilton: "We're having a good look at the times. We currently believe your time is good enough to go through, but we'll keep monitoring it."

• 13:36

  So, Hamilton may not be keen on going out again, thus saving himself a set of the softer tyres.

• 13:37

  Hamilton is currently sitting in 6th place.

• 13:37

  Four and a half minutes to go, and just Pérez remains out on track. Maldonado does look like he's gearing up for a one run special.

• 13:38

  TedNews: Renault are not looking so good, they have used up two sets of supersoft tyres already, and they'll use another set in this attempt just coming up.

• 13:40

  Two minutes left and Maldonado still has not gone out.

• 13:40

  The top seven are still in the garage. Both Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, plus Rosberg.

• 13:41

  The drop zone features: Heidfeld, Alguersuari (who is in the pits), Kobayashi, Di Resta, Sutil, Barrichello and Maldonado.

• 13:41

  Barrichello improves to 11th, close but not quite close enough.

• 13:42

  Sutil jumps up to 8th place, which pushes Schumacher into the drop zone.

• 13:42

  Qualifying session 2 ends.

• 13:42

  Pastor Maldonado did not go out at all.

• 13:43

  Schumacher jumps from 13th to 8th, and the action is over.

• 13:44

  Qualifying Position

  11	Paul di Resta	Force India
  12	Vitaly Petrov	Renault
  13	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber
  14	Nick Heidfeld	Renault
  15	Rubens Barrichello	Williams
  16	Jaime Alguersuari	Toro Rosso
  17	Pastor Maldonado	Williams

• 13:44

  Field Spread

  Pos	Driver	Time
  1st	Fernando Alonso	1:20.262
  16th	Jaime Alguersuari	1:22.979

• 13:46

  Interview with Sébastian Buemi: "I think it does not affect the confidence at all. At the end of the day it was a strategy call. We couldn't aim higher than 16th so there was no point using two sets of supersoft tyres, especially with the five place grid penalty, so tomorrow with three sets of supersofts I can aim for a good race if the degradation is quite high."

• 13:46

  Team radio to Button: "The track temperature is dropping which should help the option tyre."

• 13:49

  Interview with Paul di Resta: "We had a bit of a messy run in Q1 on the supersofts for some reason but other than that our prime run was quite good, I was quite happy with the car and the lap just wasn't quite there, maybe I could have been a little bit more adventurous on it. But it's a reasonable position to start the race and it's a good side of the track to start hopefully."

• 13:50

  Tweet from @ianparkesf1: Sergio Perez makes the top 10 for the first time. Beats Di Resta to it by a tenth of a second.

• 13:50

  Qualifying session 3 begins.

• 13:50

  No movement from the cars yet. An engine fires up somewhere though.

• 13:51

  It's a Ferrari that heads out first. Fernando Alonso getting an early run.

• 13:51

  Hamilton, Button and Sutil have all also joined the fun. It looks like everyone is going for supersofts.

• 13:53

  Three minutes gone, all cars out bar Schumacher, Rosberg and Pérez. They may be waiting to have just one lap.

• 13:54

  Tweet from @ianparkesf1: Oops! Of course Sergio made top 10 in Monaco, but sadly crashed out. Still a great effort today.

• 13:54

  Alonso sets the first benchmark - 1:20.365.

• 13:54

  It looked like a ragged lap from Hamilton but he improves to a 1:19.978, with Button posting third.

• 13:54

  Felipe Massa slips into fourth place. Two Red Bulls on a lap now.

• 13:55

  Five minutes left to go. Vettel posts the second fastest time, just three hundredths off pole.

• 13:55

  Webber crosses the line sixth with a 1:20.768. The times are close, but that is not good news for the Australian.

• 13:56

  Hamilton returns to the pitlane, as does Alonso.

• 13:56

  Sutil must have abandoned his lap. He has definitely been out but is back in the pitlane with no time.

• 13:57

  All ten drivers in the pitlane now. Three minutes to go.

• 13:57

  Team radio to Webber: "KERS has come to life. We can do our second run with KERS in discharge only. Leave the brake balance as it is and push the button when you need it."

• 13:58

  Alonso and Rosberg break cover for the second and final run at a time. The two Mercedes drivers also leave the garage for the first time this session.

• 13:58

  Sutil and Pérez head out for their first run, and Massa becomes the last driver to leave the pits. All ten on track.

• 13:59

  One minute to go.

• 14:00

  Alonso will be the first to set a time.

• 14:00

  Qualifying session 3 ends.

• 14:00

  Alonso the first for this run, I mean. He goes slower and remains third.

• 14:00

  Vettel improves to a 1:19.815 for P1.

• 14:01

  Hamilton fights the car and can't improve, second place for McLaren.

• 14:01

  Jenson Button improves from fourth to third. Webber goes up to fifth but is pushed down by Massa, who outqualifies Alonso!

• 14:01

  That deserves a piechart.

• 14:02

  Qualifying Battle

  Ferrari	Qualified Ahead
  Fernando Alonso	10
  Felipe Massa	1

• 14:03

  Qualifying Position

  1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull
  2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren
  3	Jenson Button	McLaren
  4	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
  5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
  6	Mark Webber	Red Bull
  7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
  8	Adrian Sutil	Force India
  9	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes
  10	Sergio Pérez	Sauber

• 14:03

  All Red Bull poles still then.

  2011 Pole Positions

  Pos	Driver	Total
  1	Sebastian Vettel	8
  2	Mark Webber	3

• 14:04

  Tweet from @VoxVocis: Now that was close. Middle sector mistake has cost LH Pole. Well done to Seb and Jenson who will strat 3rd in his 200th Race. #F1

• 14:06

  Pérez did not set a time in that session.

• 14:07

  Interview with Mark Webber: "Bizarre. I couldn't, no way I could do that lap time. Absolutely no way. Did my best, had a few KERS issues in the middle of the session, but I had it back for the last runs. 19s are a different zone to me. We see how sensitive the tyres are and today I didn't extract enough out of them to be further up the grid. Yesterday it was nip and tuck, today there was a gap. The car felt okay, in terms of balance. If you have a gap of six tenths... I need to look through it obviously. It's a big step compared to the last few races, I need to analyse it."

• 14:10

  Interview with Fernando Alonso: "Third, after the first tyre was a better result because we start on the clean side in third. But now we lost one row so starting fifth. To be honest maybe fifth is better than fourth in a way because there's quite a big difference. Obviously we lost a bit of ground, especially for the first corner, if we want to put Vettel in some travel, starting fifth is a little bit more difficult. Let's hope the McLaren can do it in the first corner."

• 14:11

  Press Conference Quotes - Sebastian Vettel: "I think it was a very good session for us. Yesterday I think these boys were a little bit quicker than us. Seems like we've done the right thing, it was much more comfortable this morning. Very pleased with the result, we changed a lot on the car overnight, the boys were working very hard and they didn't get much sleep. To have a result like this today is the best way to say thanks.

  I've got the confidence back, today I felt much more comfortable in the car, now I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

• 14:12

  Press Conference Quotes - Lewis Hamilton: "It's a great achievement for us, I think. We knew from the previous race we had good pace. To still be on the front row was a good job. I'm quite happy, I think we can collect some good results from here."

• 14:14

  Press Conference Quotes - Jenson Button: "I'm pretty happy with that. You always, after a lap, think there was a little bit here, a little bit there, but to be fair it was a pretty good lap. Happy to be up in third. That's been my issue of late, and it makes it very difficult in the race to make up the time. It's nice to be in the position we are and hopefully tomorrow we can have a pretty good fight."

• 14:14

  Tweet from @PaulHembery: Seb was still asking us questions at 9.30 pm last night. Whatever they changed worked. Looks like a good battle tomorrow

• 14:15

  Gap Analysis

  Pos	Driver	Gap
  1st	VET	1:19.815
  2nd	HAM	+0.163
  3rd	BUT	+0.209
  4th	MAS	+0.535

• 14:17

  Another race with Vettel on pole position, but those surrounding him seem even more fired up to try and make the places off the line and battle for the lead into the first corner.

• 14:18

  Fernando Alonso seemed a bit off form today, it's a surprise to see Massa qualify ahead of him, but it will be interesting to see how long that will last.

• 14:18

  McLaren look in the place to do something feisty tomorrow, whilst Mark Webber has it all to do from sixth place.

• 14:19

  Further back, Pérez will start well in 10th, whilst Sutil may be able to repeat his strong performance from Germany starting from 8th.

• 14:20

  Racing begins tomorrow at 1pm GMT+1, but I'll be here an hour earlier with all the build up. I hope you'll join me then!