Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari will 'breeze' Hungarian Grand Prix after conceding he never had a shot at pole

Mercedes will have to find a way to pass both Ferraris after qualifying third and fourth

Lewis Hamilton does not rate his chances of winning the Hungarian Grand Prix (Getty)

Lewis Hamilton came to Hungary still elated after his dominant victory on home ground at Silverstone, and intent on equalling Michael Schumacher’s tally of 68 pole positions. But it was soon clear that both Ferrari and Red Bull would offer stiff opposition to Mercedes here and as Sebastian Vettel took his 48th pole position instead, the Briton found himself struggling down in fourth place on the starting grid.

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff believed an error at the start of Q3 cost him his chance of the pole.

The team have struggled since Friday, when Hamilton correctly surmised that every tenth of a second would count when it came to qualifying.

Vettel headed the first qualifying session by 0.022s from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen; Hamilton was fastest in the second by 0.109s from Vettel. But he had complained of serious vibrations from his supersoft Pirelli tyres in both Q2, when he slid wide on the exit to Turn 4 and lost time, and again on his first lap in Q3 when he put all four wheels into the run-off area of the same corner, then pitted immediately without setting a time. Later his sole fast run yielded only fourth best time, 0.431s off Vettel’s best.

"Throughout qualifying we improved and I think we would have been in the fight for pole position," Wolff told Sky Sports. "But obviously the mistake in the second to last lap compromised Lewis's final run.”

The Hungaroring is an unusual circuit. It’s a permanent facility that has many of the characteristics of a street track, including maximum downforce and extreme difficulty overtaking. Hamilton knows he’ll have his work cut out to improve on his fourth place tomorrow, starting behind the Ferraris of Vettel and his partner Kimi Raikkonen, and his own team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

“I didn’t for a moment think we had a shot at the pole,” he said. “We’ve been no match here for Ferrari. The vibrations didn’t give us any issues over the car’s balance, but it’s just like in a roadcar. If you have a vibration you need to have the wheel and tyre rebalanced. It’s like you’ve got a flat spot even before you’ve started. Taking the corners with the vibrations gave you a fake reading on the car’s balance.

“But really, I think that wasn’t the reason our pace was what it was. Ferrari made improvements this weekend, and they deserved to get the pole. Their car was faster and it looks like they had more downforce here.”

Vettel was back to his more normal self, the one when things are going his way.

“We are working hard, and the last race was not great for us,” he said. “But that doesn’t matter now. We are here to do our best and we take it step by step. I’m really happy where we are again, especially when you remember where we were 12 months ago. The car was phenomenal and when I saw it was two reds up front I let out a big scream. It’s only Saturday of course and the big challenge comes tomorrow, but after all the talk after the last race [that Ferrari were finished] it was good to give the answer on the track.”

Hamilton feels Ferrari have more downforce than Mercedes (Getty)

Both Vettel and Hamilton expect a really tough battle, when ambient temperatures in a long race are expected to peak around 33 degrees Celsius.

"You can't overtake here,” Hamilton admitted. “It's most likely going to be a train unless we can do something with strategy. Getting past the Ferraris is going to be an almost impossible task, unless they have problems. I think it’s going to be an easy breeze for them.”

The start will probably give the Mercedes drivers, and Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo on the row behind, their best chance of making progress. Two years ago it was Vettel who benefited when the Mercedes of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg lagged off the front row of the grid and were overtaken before Turn 1.

"The start is the best possibility to jump them, the run down to the first turn is very long,” Wolff said. "Strategy-wise, I guess there is not a lot of possibilities."

Lewis Hamilton runs wide on the exit of turn five (Getty)

If one Briton was a little pensive, another, however, was quietly bubbling. When Felipe Massa fell ill with a virus infection on Saturday morning, Scot Paul di Resta was called up as Williams’ reserve driver. The 31 year-old Scot came here expecting to deputise for Martin Brundle, who was taken ill with a similar problem to Massa’s, at the British GP.

“My wife Laura said wouldn’t it be funny if I ended up being called up to drive,” Di Resta admitted. “So if you ask me which is more nerve-wracking, doing the TV bit or driving the car, I’d say it’s actually knowing that she can predict the future.”

Paul di Resta was a late call-up to replace Felipe Massa (Getty)

Certainly, he gave no outward appearance of being anything but super-confident in the car. He last raced in F1 for Force India in Brazil at the end of 2013. Since then he only drove the current Williams C40 in the simulator prior to the Australian Grand Prix (since when its specification has changed greatly) and did 10 laps in a 2014 spec Williams.

The team left the car largely as Massa had set it up in the final practice session, and he had just four timed laps in which to prove his mettle. He ended up 19th, just a quarter of a second off rookie team-mate Lance Stroll who has been racing the car all season and finished third recently in Baku.

“He was amazing,” technical director Paddy Lowe said. “He did a mind-blowing job. Tomorrow you don’t know what might happen, so it depends how the race pans out as it is often full of incidents. But Paul is a good, solid driver who doesn’t make mistakes.”

Paul di Resta will start in 19th after qualifying ahead of Marcus Ericsson (Getty)

Di Resta himself, at just 31, knows that against all expectations a good showing here could rekindle his F1 dream.

“This is a nifty little track that requires a lot of confidence, and these cars are not very forgiving, so I have no idea what to expect tomorrow. These are the best cars in the world to drive and I felt back at home this afternoon. But I don’t know how much front wing to carry, what the option tyres will feel like, stuff like that, so I will rely on the team and my plan is just to keep it simple. I’ll be concentrating on pushing two pedals and turning the steering wheel.

“The F1 dream could still be there. Since I stopped racing F1 I’ve had two kids and the best time of my life, but I still have the ambition to drive the best race car that I can.”

If nothing else, he can sleep tonight knowing that he did an extraordinarily professional job jumping in the “deepest of the deep ends” - at zero moment’s notice.

Qualifying results

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1min 16.276secs

2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:16.444

3 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:16.530

4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:16.693

5 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:16.797

6 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:16.818

7 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 1:17.468

8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren 1:17.549

9 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren 1:17.894

10 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.311

11 Jolyon Palmer (Gbr) Renault 1:18.415

12 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 1:18.495

13 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.538

14 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:18.639

15 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:18.771

16 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:19.095

17 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams 1:19.102

18 Pascal Wehrlein (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 1:19.839

19 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Williams 1:19.868

20 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 1:19.972

Note: Nico Hulkenberg has a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change so starts 12th.