Lewis Hamilton: “The car was really hooked up today”

© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.

Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Toto Wolff and Andrew Shovlin give their comments on the Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team locks out the front row for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

  • Lewis secured the 90th pole position of his F1 career – his second of 2020 and seventh at the Hungaroring, equalling Michael Schumacher for the most pole positions at this race.
  • Valtteri missed out on pole by just 0.107s, finishing P2 to secure a front row lockout for the team.
  • Lewis’s pole lap of 1:13.447 sets a new Formula One track record at the Hungaroring.
  • Both drivers will start the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix on the Medium tyre, if the race is dry.
Lewis Hamilton

The car was really hooked up today, but Valtteri didn’t make it easy for me at all! It requires absolute perfection when it comes to these laps and that kind of Qualifying is one of the things I enjoy the most. The fact that it’s my 90th pole position… I have to pinch myself; it just doesn’t register. It’s humbling to be honest, because I get to work with such an incredible group of people and without them, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do this. A massive thank you to everyone back home and here at the track that do such an amazing job. Looking to tomorrow, it’s a long run down to Turn 1 here, so nothing is a given and I’ve got to get my head down and work hard on delivering at the start. We don’t know what the weather is going to do, so we’ve got to put the work in this evening, prepare the best we can and focus on bringing home a one-two for the team.

Valtteri Bottas

We were on a really strong level again today, which is good for us. I knew from FP3 that it was going to be a close battle with Lewis in Qualifying, my laps were okay but the final lap in Q3 was actually really good, but I just couldn’t go much faster. Lewis did a great job to get the pole today and it’s going to be a bit of a drag race into Turn 1 between us tomorrow, so I look forward to that – the first lap will definitely be interesting. I’m the Championship leader at the moment, but I need to win races to maintain that, so that’s the only goal I have tomorrow and I’m fully focused on making it happen.

Toto Wolff

I’m really happy with today’s Qualifying result, both Lewis and Valtteri were evenly matched and they did a great job to lock out the front row, especially with the Hungaroring always being a tricky circuit when it comes to putting together a hot lap. I think the conditions were just right for us today, a bit cooler than we’ve experienced before, and the result shows all the hard work trackside, in Brackley and in Brixworth is paying off. Now we have to focus on having a clean race tomorrow and bringing both cars home. Also, I’d like to say congratulations to Racing Point for their strong performance in Qualifying, I’m really happy to see them locking out the second row.

Andrew Shovlin

Well done to Lewis and Valtteri on another front row lock out and to the team on another strong performance. We got beaten to pole here last year, so it’s very satisfying to see how well the car is performing both on the straights and in the corners. Despite the near constant threat of rain, the day has been fairly straightforward. Perhaps the cool track is flattering us a little, but the car has worked well all weekend and we were able to get through the second session on the Medium tyre, which has been our plan from the start of the weekend. By the final run, it was clear that pole was a contest between our two drivers, so we made sure they had clear track to battle it out between themselves. There was literally nothing separating them at the apex of the final corner, but Lewis made a better exit which was enough to put him ahead. We’re looking forward to the race tomorrow but not taking anything for granted; there’s likely to still be a fair bit of rain around and this is often a grand prix with its fair share of incidents.

Source: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team

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