Mercedes’ George Russell is “absolutely buzzing” to have achieved his maiden F1 pole position for 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Having endured a “disastrous” Friday Practice around the Hungaroring which he didn’t rate as his “smoothest”, Russell suffered an even harder FP3 in wet conditions as he struggled with tyre temperature and grip issues on intermediate and wet tyres.
The Brit however proceeded to snatch a shock maiden pole position in his 73rd F1 entry with a last-gasp lap in Q3 to stun Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who had looked set for pole as the checkered flag fell.
Feeling “over the moon and absolutely buzzing”, Russell explained what exactly happened for him to claim pole as he said: ” In Formula 1 there are so many fine margins and when you get in that perfect window, your car will just fly, which we managed to do in today’s conditions.
“We didn’t know what direction to go in but on the last lap I came across the line, looked at the screen and saw we went P1, which was such an incredible feeling.”
Russell though has urged caution on the prospect that Mercedes are back in the fight for wins as he added: “We need to look into our performance from today and understand where it came from. We have a few ideas, but don’t fully understand it yet.”
Russell’s teammate, Lewis Hamilton however will line up seventh after he suffered a DRS failure on his final Q3 lap, which the seven-time champion described as “frustrating” as he believed that he could of qualified on the front row for a first Mercedes one-two in 2022.
Hamilton though was happy with the overnight work undertaken overnight both at the circuit and factory despite his car not feeling “good” during FP3 before bouncing back in a “strong” Qualifying session amidst little awareness of how the car found pace.
On Russell achieving his maiden pole position, Hamilton added: “Huge congratulations to George, it’s an amazing feeling to get your first pole position and it’s also huge for us as a team.”
Mercedes Team Principal, Toto Wolff added that both drivers had managed to get the tyres into the correct working window in Q3 with a solid car balance and increasing confidence after each lap.
Wolff also iterated that he “wouldn’t rule out” Russell challenging both Ferrari drivers for victory tomorrow, although Hamilton faces a “tough” task from seventh but Wolff believes he would of been in contention too if not for his DRS issue.
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