F1: Hamilton Claims Pole In Wet Weather Hungary GP; Bottas To Start Second

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton proved his abilities in the rain as he grabbed the pole position for the 2018 Formula 1 Hungary Grand Prix. The challenging conditions of the weather made the qualifying session at Hungary a chaotic one, but only for the Mercedes driver to emerge at the front. Following up his teammate, Valtteri Bottas will start second tomorrow, followed by the Ferrari cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel in third and fourth place respectively. This marks the 77th pole of Hamilton's F1 career as the Briton led by a margin of 0.260s.

The weather changed from dry to wet over the qualifying session and saw the top drivers stick to wet tyres for Q3. The first half of the session saw Raikkonen in the lead with a substantial advantage, but the Mercedes cars were yet to put their best laps on the board. With both Hamilton and Bottas pitting for the second set of wets, the W09s were significantly faster over the Ferraris, turning the qualifying into a battle between Hamilton and Bottas. Lewis developed a lead over nearly half a second over his teammate in the final sector, before taking the pole.

Starting fifth is Renault Carlos Sainz, the only driver to not use two sets of wets in Q3, while the sixth place has been taken by Pierre Gasly of Torro Rosso. Red Bull's Max Verstappen did not have the best qualifying and will start seventh 2.374s off the pole-sitter.

Torro Rosso's Brendon Hartley took a career best eighth, followed by Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean of Haas taking the last two spots on the top 10 list. Fernando Alonso of McLaren was one of the last drivers to change to wets and will be starting 11th tomorrow after failing to improve his time, but remains ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.