Lewis Hamilton described himself as “absolutely useless” after he had put in the qualification for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Q2, while teammate Charles Leclerc took the pole position.
Ferrari secured his first pole position of the season at the Hungaroring when Leclerc defeated the two McLarens, but Hamilton could not participate in that fight after missing only 0.015s in Q2. Hamilton was 0.247 slower than Leclerc in that part of the session and explained that his radio message of “Every Time” was aimed in itself.
“I’m just every time,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “Yes, I am useless. Absolutely useless.”
“The team has no problem. You have seen that the car is on pole, so … we probably have to change from driver.”
While Hamilton was Downbeat, his team head Fred Vasseur was much more philosophical when it came to the margins between the two drivers as the session progressed.
“It was certainly by far the best session of the season, but it was a very difficult one and you have to keep this in mind,” Vasseur told SiriusXM. “We were not so far away from having the two cars in Q2, and we could come back and put everything together and take a few steps for Q3.
“But it was a huge challenge for us – I think for everyone. The circumstances changed en masse from Q1 to Q2 with a few drops [of rain] And at the end a bit windier. And then the window for the tires is so narrow that if you’re out a bit, you’re dead. It is a challenge and we know for sure that when the circumstances are like that, it is very, very difficult to put everything together.
“It is better to start pole in Budapest than from P12, but I think the analysis is a good that you don’t have to compare P1 and P12, you have to compare a tenth in Q2. This is more the issue, because Charles was not that far away in Q2, and we have to keep it in our analysis of the day.
“But it is as it is, and certainly we have to work collectively in order not to be exposed in Q1 or Q2. And the fact that we had to use a second set in Q1 was also not a good start of the session, because you only have one in Q2 and it is much more difficult.”
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