Vettel Takes 8th Pole of Season in Hungary

BUDAPEST, Hungary-R.I.S.- After experiencing a rare off week last Sunday at his home grand prix in Germany, Sebastian Vettel put the accelerator down just minutes from the end of the last qualifying session and set the fastest time of 1: 19:815 to take his eighth pole of the season for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring. McLaren teammates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished second and third, respectively.

“I think it was a very good session.” Commented Vettel afterwards. “These boys (McLaren drivers Hamilton and Button) were quicker this week than us, and I am very pleased with the result. The boys (vettel’s pit crew) did not get much sleep last night, but I got the confidence back, and I am looking forward with tomorrow.”

At the beginning of the two sessions, it was not Vettel or either of the Mclaren drivers who were successful, but Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who even with a slight breeze on the track, dominated the opening two sessions with a top qualifying time of 1:20:262 in the latter. But despite Alonso who was working well, both Renault drivers Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov, as well as F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello, failed to advance to the final session.

The ten remaining cars in the final session were very slow in coming out onto the circuit, but when they did, there was only two minutes to go, and everyone were bunched up as the final seconds ticked down. But it was Vettel, who found a clean piece of track to set the best lap and put himself on pole once again in a race he has only one once before.

Both McLaren drivers were not disappointed afterwards, realizing that the team has improved well since the beginning of the year.

“I trust in what they do.” Said Hamilton about his team. “Don’t know what the problem was. The car was very quick, and I am very pleased with today.”

“I think it was a great achievement for us.” Commented Button afterwards. “Today we picked up pace and we can get points from this. I am happy with that. It was a pretty good lap and hopefully we can have a good fight.”

Felipe Massa took fourth, followed by his Ferrari teammate Alonso, who could only manage fifth. Mark Webber, who took pole last year, could only be satisfied with a disappointing sixth, while Nico Rosberg finished seventh, and Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Sergio Perez, who did not even take a lap in the final session, rounded out the top ten.

Vettel, who had suffered a problem with his KERS system, never really knew about it., as it was solved in the final session.

“I did not even know if there was a problem.” Said Vettel. “ If there was , it did not bother me because we already had it fixed in the last session.”