Bericht
Der Brite Lewis Hamilton stellte seinen McLaren Mercedes mit einer 1:20,899 auf die Poleposition vor seinem Teamkollegen Heikki Kovalainen. Bester McLaren Verfolger wurde Felipe Massa im Ferrari. Vierter wurde der Pole Robert Kubica im BMW – Sauber. Teamkollege Nick Heidfeld schied schon in der ersten Runde aus. Timo Glock schaffte nach dem Unfall in Hockenheim im Toyota einen tollen Fünften Platz und startet am Sonntag sogar vor Weltmeister Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari). Startplatz Sieben ging an Fernando Alonso (Renault). Red Bull – Pilot Mark Webber startet von Startplatz Acht vor Jarno Trulli (Toyota) und Nelson Piquet jr. (Renault). Sebastian Vettel verpasste um nur 0,013 Sekunden den Einzug ins Finale und startet vor Jenson Button (Honda), David Coulthard (Red Bull) und Teamkollegen Sebastian Bourdais von Startplatz Elf. Sebasiten Bourdais wurde nachträglich für das Blockieren im ersten Qualifying gegen Nick Heidfeld bestraft und muss von Startplatz 19 aus ins Rennen gehen. Nico Rosberg konnte wegen einem Hydraulikschaden am Williams Toyota im Q2 keine gezeitete Runde fahren und startet von Startplatz Vierzehn. Schon im ersten Qualifying schied Nick Heidfeld, der hinter Sebastien Bourdais hängen blieb, aus und startet vor Nakajima (Williams), Barrichello (Honda) und den Force India Piloten Giancarlo Fisichella und Adrian Sutil von Startplatz Fünfzehn.
PRESSEBERICHTE
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes (Pole Position):
"The team has done a fantastic job of continually improving the car over the past few weeks, so I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved today. It’s great to have locked out the front row with Heikki - we’ve been threatening to do it for a number of races, so to achieve it at a track where it’s tricky to pass is really satisfying. There’s a great harmony within the team at the moment and we really deserved this. I couldn’t ask to be in a better position, we’ve both got good strategies for tomorrow and we’ll be challenging for the win."
[Quelle: www.mclaren.com]
Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren Mercedes (Startplatz 2):
"It was difficult to choose the right tyre for the final session and I felt I could have done a slightly faster lap in Q3, but I was a little cautious in Turn Two. Still, we’ve found a great direction with the car and I’ve got a great opportunity to win the race tomorrow. It’s fantastic to be starting on the front row alongside Lewis. I hope that starting on. the dirty side of the track won’t be a disadvantage and I fully expect us to look out for each other in the first corner tomorrow. This result really repays the team for all its efforts over the past few months."
[Quelle: www.mclaren.com]
Felipe Massa, Ferrari (Startplatz 3):
"It's a shame I didn't manage to get the best out of the car in Q3, mainly because of traffic, especially on my second run. In the first two parts of qualifying the car felt good, as can be seen from my times, but then I never managed to prepare the tyres in the best way. Clearly, overtaking isn't easy but we have a good pace and I will try and exploit that in fighting with the two drivers ahead of me on the grid."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Ferrari]
Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari (Startplatz 6):
I made a mistake on my final flying lap which cost me precious time, and that followed on from not having got a great lap on my previous attempt, which explains why I'm sixth. Of course I am not happy and, starting from the third row, my race will be an uphill struggle. I will try and make the most of this situation, given that the car today was not that bad. We are going through a bit of a difficult time but we mustn't give up: all we need to do is put together all the pieces of the jigsaw and then the results will come to us again."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Ferrari]
Robert Kubica, BMW - Sauber (Startplatz 4):
"Ich bin glücklich mit dem Ergebnis. Das war mit Sicherheit eines meiner besten Qualifyings in dieser Saison. Ich habe wirklich nicht erwartet, dass ich hier am Sonntag vom vierten Platz starten würde, denn das Auto war über das gesamte bisherige Wochenende ziemlich schwierig zu fahren. Es fiel uns schwer, die optimale Balance zu finden. Am Ende ist es mir gelungen, die härtere Reifenmischung zum Arbeiten zu bringen. Ich freue mich jetzt auf das Rennen am Sonntag."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung BMW - Sauber]
Nick Heidfeld, BMW - Sauber (Startplatz 15):
"Ich bin extrem enttäuscht. Am Ende des gestrigen Trainings und heute Vormittag sah es gut aus. Aber auf meiner letzten Runde waren mir vier Autos im Weg. Die meisten haben wenigstens versucht, mir Platz zu machen, aber etwas Zeit kostet das immer. Gegen Ende der Runde hatte ich einen vor mir, der auf der Auslaufrunde war. Er hat Gas gegeben, als er mich sah und dann vor der letzten Kurve Sebastien Bourdais überholt, und der stand mir dann komplett im Weg. Ich hatte gehofft, dass das so offensichtlich war, dass er dafür direkt eine Strafe bekommen würde und ich doch noch in Q2 rutschen würde."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung BMW - Sauber]
Timo Glock, Toyota (Startplatz 5):
"That was a very good qualifying session for me and I'm obviously delighted. We made a good start in first practice yesterday. The team did a good job overnight and we made the right choice over set-up. It wasn't easy today because we had a very tight choice over tyres so we had to make a close decision for every lap. But in the end my engineers stayed cool and got it right. In Q2 the car felt perfect. Then on the very last lap it was a bit trickier again because the tyres didn't behave quite as well, but I'm happy with P5. We are in a great situation for tomorrow. It's good for all of us and after Hockenheim this is the perfect answer for the faith I have in the whole team."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Toyota]
Janro Trulli, Toyota (Startplatz 9):
"I'm glad to be in the top ten but that was a difficult qualifying session and P9 is disappointing. Since this morning I have struggled for grip and balance and unfortunately we weren't able to find the answers in time. I had the same problems in qualifying so we will have to investigate that tonight. I'm happy for Timo, who has done a good job this weekend and it is clearly important for us to score as many points as possible for the constructors' championship. Overtaking is very difficult here but tomorrow is a very long race and we will see what we can achieve."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Toyota]
Fernando Alonso, Renault (Startplatz 7):
"Wie erwartet, ging es im Qualifying zum Großen Preis von Ungarn sehr eng zu. Von Beginn an lag das Feld in der Zeitenliste dicht beisammen, deswegen bin ich sehr froh, dass wir es mit beiden Renault R28 in die Runde der besten Zehn geschafft haben. Dennoch rechne ich mit einem sehr schwierigen Rennen. Aber ich bin fest gewillt, Budapest mit WM-Punkten im Gepäck wieder zu verlassen."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Renault]
Nelson Piquet jr., Renault (Startplatz 10):
"Dieses Abschlusstraining war ziemlich hart umkämpft, härter als ich es mir zuvor ausgerechnet hatte. Trotzdem bin ich ins letzte Drittel vorgedrungen und sehr froh darüber. Denn dadurch haben wir uns eine sehr gute Ausgangsposition für das Rennen erarbeitet. Ich hoffe, dass ich das Beste daraus machen kann und habe mir WM-Punkte zum Ziel gesetzt."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Renault]
Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing (Startplatz 8):
"That was a pretty good qualifying session, quite straightforward. It would have been nice to have had a bit more pace in Q3, but Q2 and Q1 went well for us. I’m disappointed I’m on the wrong side of the grid, an odd number is always better, but we definitely have a chance to get something from where we are, so we’ll see how we go tomorrow."
[Quelle: Red Bull Racing]
David Coulthard, Red Bull Racing (Startplatz 13):
"I was losing a little bit of time in each of the sectors and I couldn’t deliver that last little bit of lap time because I was bringing the mid-corner speed too low. It’s tough from thirteenth for sure, but the Hungarian race can be unpredictable, so let’s see."
[Quelle: Red Bull Racing]
Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Toro Rosso (Startplatz 8):
"A shame to miss out on Q3 by one hundredth, but we expected it to be tight. We can be happy though, especially given I only managed nine laps yesterday. It means we did a good job today. Now we can do what we like in terms of fuel load for the race and hopefully find a good strategy. I’ve yet to do a long run this weekend but I think we can find a good compromise between qualifying and race pace and we have a good set-up on the car."
[Quelle: Scuderia Toro Rosso]
Sebastien Bourdais, Scuderia Toro Rosso (Startplatz 19):
"I struggled with the Option tyre as it gave me no grip and I was sliding around more and had no feel for the car. I was very happy in a well balanced car earlier on but after that I’m not really sure what happened. I am disappointed, because even if Q3 would have been hard to reach, I could not match my Q1 time in Q2."
[Quelle: Scuderia Toro Rosso]
Jenson Button, Honda (Startplatz 12):
"I'm happy to have qualified in P12 today after a good lap on the final run in Q2 pushed me a few places up the grid. We've definitely made some progress with the new developments to the car and in particular the new rear suspension is working well and this has enabled us to improve the car step by step over the weekend. I got the most out of the car today and it's encouraging to see we were only three-tenths away from the top ten as it has been a while since we were that close. I'm on the dirty side of the grid, which is a disadvantage, but I am sure we can have a good race tomorrow from here nonetheless."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Honda]
Rubens Barrichello, Honda (Startplatz 17):
"Choosing which tyre to run was a really tough decision today and it was a difficult qualifying session. I felt the supersoft option tyre was working slightly better with the car so I stayed with that for my final run. After a good first sector, I went in too quick for turn 11 and made a mistake which ruined my lap. With that went the chance to progress to Q2 and the time from my previous run puts me in 18th place on the grid. The lap was going quite well but a mistake at turn 11 meant that I had to abort the lap. I have to settle for 18th place today and turn my focus now to the race."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Honda]
Nico Rosberg, Williams - Toyota (Startplatz 14):
"We had a difficult start to this weekend, but we’ve improved throughout the sessions and
learnt a lot of things along the way. We therefore weren’t looking too bad for qualifying. I
made a mistake on my fast lap in Q1 and lost two and a half tenths in one corner, so my
Q1 time did not show the true potential of our car. We then had a good chance of making
it into Q3, but a hydraulic problem meant I couldn’t go out at all in Q2 which was
disappointing. It’s pretty interesting here tyre-wise as both are very soft on this track, but
the harder ones were better for me today."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Williams]
Kazuki Nakajima, Williams - Toyota (Startplatz 16):
"It was a difficult qualifying for me. Aside from plenty of traffic, I didn’t really manage to
find the right balance on my last set of option tyres. Both factors compromised my run.
We now need to go through the data and work out what’s happening in order to get the
most out of the car for tomorrow."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Williams]
Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India (Startplatz 18):
"Conditions today were tough but actually that was the maximum we could do. The target was
to do a 1min 21.7 or 21.8 and we did a 21.6 so that was the most we could get out of the car.
The balance was not too bad, but unfortunately the grip level is still very poor. I think we're not
particularly quick round here and we have to accept that, but we are still quite close we are to
the others."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Force India]
Adrian Sutil
"It was a hot, tough qualifying and I am not 100% happy with the session. The tyres did not
behave as we expected and I had lots of graining, which meant we couldn't get a good
balance out of the car. I decided to run the harder set of tyres in the end for my fastest lap,
but at least I didn't get the effects of the graining with them. Overall I'm not that happy, but
let's see what happens tomorrow."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Force India]
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes (Pole Position):
"The team has done a fantastic job of continually improving the car over the past few weeks, so I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved today. It’s great to have locked out the front row with Heikki - we’ve been threatening to do it for a number of races, so to achieve it at a track where it’s tricky to pass is really satisfying. There’s a great harmony within the team at the moment and we really deserved this. I couldn’t ask to be in a better position, we’ve both got good strategies for tomorrow and we’ll be challenging for the win."
[Quelle: www.mclaren.com]
Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren Mercedes (Startplatz 2):
"It was difficult to choose the right tyre for the final session and I felt I could have done a slightly faster lap in Q3, but I was a little cautious in Turn Two. Still, we’ve found a great direction with the car and I’ve got a great opportunity to win the race tomorrow. It’s fantastic to be starting on the front row alongside Lewis. I hope that starting on. the dirty side of the track won’t be a disadvantage and I fully expect us to look out for each other in the first corner tomorrow. This result really repays the team for all its efforts over the past few months."
[Quelle: www.mclaren.com]
Felipe Massa, Ferrari (Startplatz 3):
"It's a shame I didn't manage to get the best out of the car in Q3, mainly because of traffic, especially on my second run. In the first two parts of qualifying the car felt good, as can be seen from my times, but then I never managed to prepare the tyres in the best way. Clearly, overtaking isn't easy but we have a good pace and I will try and exploit that in fighting with the two drivers ahead of me on the grid."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Ferrari]
Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari (Startplatz 6):
I made a mistake on my final flying lap which cost me precious time, and that followed on from not having got a great lap on my previous attempt, which explains why I'm sixth. Of course I am not happy and, starting from the third row, my race will be an uphill struggle. I will try and make the most of this situation, given that the car today was not that bad. We are going through a bit of a difficult time but we mustn't give up: all we need to do is put together all the pieces of the jigsaw and then the results will come to us again."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Ferrari]
Robert Kubica, BMW - Sauber (Startplatz 4):
"Ich bin glücklich mit dem Ergebnis. Das war mit Sicherheit eines meiner besten Qualifyings in dieser Saison. Ich habe wirklich nicht erwartet, dass ich hier am Sonntag vom vierten Platz starten würde, denn das Auto war über das gesamte bisherige Wochenende ziemlich schwierig zu fahren. Es fiel uns schwer, die optimale Balance zu finden. Am Ende ist es mir gelungen, die härtere Reifenmischung zum Arbeiten zu bringen. Ich freue mich jetzt auf das Rennen am Sonntag."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung BMW - Sauber]
Nick Heidfeld, BMW - Sauber (Startplatz 15):
"Ich bin extrem enttäuscht. Am Ende des gestrigen Trainings und heute Vormittag sah es gut aus. Aber auf meiner letzten Runde waren mir vier Autos im Weg. Die meisten haben wenigstens versucht, mir Platz zu machen, aber etwas Zeit kostet das immer. Gegen Ende der Runde hatte ich einen vor mir, der auf der Auslaufrunde war. Er hat Gas gegeben, als er mich sah und dann vor der letzten Kurve Sebastien Bourdais überholt, und der stand mir dann komplett im Weg. Ich hatte gehofft, dass das so offensichtlich war, dass er dafür direkt eine Strafe bekommen würde und ich doch noch in Q2 rutschen würde."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung BMW - Sauber]
Timo Glock, Toyota (Startplatz 5):
"That was a very good qualifying session for me and I'm obviously delighted. We made a good start in first practice yesterday. The team did a good job overnight and we made the right choice over set-up. It wasn't easy today because we had a very tight choice over tyres so we had to make a close decision for every lap. But in the end my engineers stayed cool and got it right. In Q2 the car felt perfect. Then on the very last lap it was a bit trickier again because the tyres didn't behave quite as well, but I'm happy with P5. We are in a great situation for tomorrow. It's good for all of us and after Hockenheim this is the perfect answer for the faith I have in the whole team."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Toyota]
Janro Trulli, Toyota (Startplatz 9):
"I'm glad to be in the top ten but that was a difficult qualifying session and P9 is disappointing. Since this morning I have struggled for grip and balance and unfortunately we weren't able to find the answers in time. I had the same problems in qualifying so we will have to investigate that tonight. I'm happy for Timo, who has done a good job this weekend and it is clearly important for us to score as many points as possible for the constructors' championship. Overtaking is very difficult here but tomorrow is a very long race and we will see what we can achieve."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Toyota]
Fernando Alonso, Renault (Startplatz 7):
"Wie erwartet, ging es im Qualifying zum Großen Preis von Ungarn sehr eng zu. Von Beginn an lag das Feld in der Zeitenliste dicht beisammen, deswegen bin ich sehr froh, dass wir es mit beiden Renault R28 in die Runde der besten Zehn geschafft haben. Dennoch rechne ich mit einem sehr schwierigen Rennen. Aber ich bin fest gewillt, Budapest mit WM-Punkten im Gepäck wieder zu verlassen."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Renault]
Nelson Piquet jr., Renault (Startplatz 10):
"Dieses Abschlusstraining war ziemlich hart umkämpft, härter als ich es mir zuvor ausgerechnet hatte. Trotzdem bin ich ins letzte Drittel vorgedrungen und sehr froh darüber. Denn dadurch haben wir uns eine sehr gute Ausgangsposition für das Rennen erarbeitet. Ich hoffe, dass ich das Beste daraus machen kann und habe mir WM-Punkte zum Ziel gesetzt."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Renault]
Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing (Startplatz 8):
"That was a pretty good qualifying session, quite straightforward. It would have been nice to have had a bit more pace in Q3, but Q2 and Q1 went well for us. I’m disappointed I’m on the wrong side of the grid, an odd number is always better, but we definitely have a chance to get something from where we are, so we’ll see how we go tomorrow."
[Quelle: Red Bull Racing]
David Coulthard, Red Bull Racing (Startplatz 13):
"I was losing a little bit of time in each of the sectors and I couldn’t deliver that last little bit of lap time because I was bringing the mid-corner speed too low. It’s tough from thirteenth for sure, but the Hungarian race can be unpredictable, so let’s see."
[Quelle: Red Bull Racing]
Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Toro Rosso (Startplatz 8):
"A shame to miss out on Q3 by one hundredth, but we expected it to be tight. We can be happy though, especially given I only managed nine laps yesterday. It means we did a good job today. Now we can do what we like in terms of fuel load for the race and hopefully find a good strategy. I’ve yet to do a long run this weekend but I think we can find a good compromise between qualifying and race pace and we have a good set-up on the car."
[Quelle: Scuderia Toro Rosso]
Sebastien Bourdais, Scuderia Toro Rosso (Startplatz 19):
"I struggled with the Option tyre as it gave me no grip and I was sliding around more and had no feel for the car. I was very happy in a well balanced car earlier on but after that I’m not really sure what happened. I am disappointed, because even if Q3 would have been hard to reach, I could not match my Q1 time in Q2."
[Quelle: Scuderia Toro Rosso]
Jenson Button, Honda (Startplatz 12):
"I'm happy to have qualified in P12 today after a good lap on the final run in Q2 pushed me a few places up the grid. We've definitely made some progress with the new developments to the car and in particular the new rear suspension is working well and this has enabled us to improve the car step by step over the weekend. I got the most out of the car today and it's encouraging to see we were only three-tenths away from the top ten as it has been a while since we were that close. I'm on the dirty side of the grid, which is a disadvantage, but I am sure we can have a good race tomorrow from here nonetheless."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Honda]
Rubens Barrichello, Honda (Startplatz 17):
"Choosing which tyre to run was a really tough decision today and it was a difficult qualifying session. I felt the supersoft option tyre was working slightly better with the car so I stayed with that for my final run. After a good first sector, I went in too quick for turn 11 and made a mistake which ruined my lap. With that went the chance to progress to Q2 and the time from my previous run puts me in 18th place on the grid. The lap was going quite well but a mistake at turn 11 meant that I had to abort the lap. I have to settle for 18th place today and turn my focus now to the race."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Honda]
Nico Rosberg, Williams - Toyota (Startplatz 14):
"We had a difficult start to this weekend, but we’ve improved throughout the sessions and
learnt a lot of things along the way. We therefore weren’t looking too bad for qualifying. I
made a mistake on my fast lap in Q1 and lost two and a half tenths in one corner, so my
Q1 time did not show the true potential of our car. We then had a good chance of making
it into Q3, but a hydraulic problem meant I couldn’t go out at all in Q2 which was
disappointing. It’s pretty interesting here tyre-wise as both are very soft on this track, but
the harder ones were better for me today."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Williams]
Kazuki Nakajima, Williams - Toyota (Startplatz 16):
"It was a difficult qualifying for me. Aside from plenty of traffic, I didn’t really manage to
find the right balance on my last set of option tyres. Both factors compromised my run.
We now need to go through the data and work out what’s happening in order to get the
most out of the car for tomorrow."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Williams]
Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India (Startplatz 18):
"Conditions today were tough but actually that was the maximum we could do. The target was
to do a 1min 21.7 or 21.8 and we did a 21.6 so that was the most we could get out of the car.
The balance was not too bad, but unfortunately the grip level is still very poor. I think we're not
particularly quick round here and we have to accept that, but we are still quite close we are to
the others."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Force India]
Adrian Sutil
"It was a hot, tough qualifying and I am not 100% happy with the session. The tyres did not
behave as we expected and I had lots of graining, which meant we couldn't get a good
balance out of the car. I decided to run the harder set of tyres in the end for my fastest lap,
but at least I didn't get the effects of the graining with them. Overall I'm not that happy, but
let's see what happens tomorrow."
[Quelle: Presseabteilung Force India]
Lewis Hamilton 
Felipe Massa 
Timo Glock 
Heikki Kovalainen 
Sebastien Bourdais 
Fernando Alonso 
Kazuki Nakajima 
Jarno Trulli 
Mark Alan Webber 
Robert Kubica 
