Formula 1 2024 Season: Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Today's qualifying session was an eventful one. To start off, Q1 was fraught with ever-changing conditions. The start of the session was the driest, and it appeared as though the track would yield better lap time for the opening laps. However, after everyone has completed their initial runs, those in the elimination zone went out again (because why not, no point accepting your fate!) and actually ended up gaining time. This no doubt prompted a reaction from all the competent teams. Notice the word "competent", which thereby excludes Alpine F1 Team. Yes, that's correct - Alpine didn't go out again. They were the only team to remain in the garage, watching their lap times slowly drop, their positions sinking until they were both 19th and 20th, powerless to do anything. Well, y'know, except actually send them out when they should've. Oh, George Russell went out in Q1 as well. Mercedes didn't put enough fuel in the car. With the prices these days, I can't really blame them.

Goodness me, I almost forgot to mention. Sergio Perez hit the wall. I imagine you're not even reacting, which is a normal response to what I've just told you. The man is mediocrity personified. In fact, he's even worse than mediocre. He's a plan liability at this point. Expect him to be gone very shortly, as he continues to put Red Bull's constructor's championship hopes in jeopardy.

Q2 next! Not quite as exciting. Magnussen, Sargeant, Albon, Bottas and Hulkenberg went out, from P15 to P11. I thought Sargeant had a decent day today, he had a great lap in Q1. Unfortunately, that's about all we see from Sargeant. Flashes of decency, then back to being in Albon's shadow. It is astonishing how many opportunities Sargeant has had to prove himself. I think, because he's had so much support, he's gotten complacent and hasn't actually been under enough pressure. Now he is though, since he's one of the prime candidates to get the boot. I'm not too fussed about the other guys, Hulkenberg was okay, although I am always a bit surprised when he doesn't get into Q3. That's how good he's been this season.

Final qualifying session after that. I think this went how many expected. McLaren are the team to beat, even with Red Bull's upgrades it always takes time to learn them. I don't think any sane person expects "upgrades" to come in, be popped on the car, then grant 0.5s worth of lap time. The margins are so fine that new parts need to be tested on track, correlations need to be verified and setup adjustments need to be made. This isn't often a quick process. How do I know this? I don't, I have no idea. What I said does sound pretty logical though, right? Anyway, it's a Norris-Piastri-Verstappen top 3, and I am interested to see how McLaren snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this time.

Oh yeah and Aston Martin had some new bits. I refrain from using the word "upgrades" as that would signify improvement, not the endless downward spiral. Any Aston Martin/Alonso fan reading any news site should jump for joy when they see Aston Martin bringing new parts to speed up the car, but us fans have been hurt literally every single time. Seems to be okay this time though, while 0.8s behind first seems like a lot, Alonso never got to do a fresh tyre run. Expect the deficit to Norris to be around 0.5s had he done a proper lap on fresh tyres, which isn't too terrible considering Verstappen is 0.3 off. The fact of the matter is, at this circuit, McLaren are just on another level. Expect a boring race up front, but some spice everywhere else.

Photo is stolen from Aston Martin's Twitter page, not sure if I need to ask them to use it. Oh well.