Lewis Hamilton described himself as “absolutely useless” after dropping out of Hungary’s Grand Prix qualifying in the second quarter, and teammate Charles Leclerc took the position of Paul.
Ferrari secured his first pole position of the season in hangering. Leclerc defeated two McLarens, but Hamilton was unable to join the fight after missing out in the second quarter in just 0.015 seconds. Hamilton explained that he was 0.247 slower than Leclerc in that part of the session, and that his “Every Time” radio message aims to himself.
“Every time it’s just me,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “Yeah, I’m useless. It’s absolutely useless.”
“It’s fine for the team. I saw the car on the pole and probably need to change the driver.”
Hamilton was downbeat, but his team principal, Fred Vasser, was far more philosophical as far as the session progressed, when it came to the margins between the two drivers.
“It was certainly the best session of the season, but it’s very difficult and you need to keep this in mind,” Vasseur told SiriusXM. “We weren’t far from putting out two cars in the second quarter. We went back and managed to put everything together and put the Q3 steps into place.
“But it was a big challenge for us – for everyone I think. The conditions changed a lot from Q1 to Q2, and at the end it was a little more windy. And the tire windows are very narrow and if you’re a bit off, it’s a challenge.
“It’s certainly better to start with P12 from the poles in Budapest, but I think the analysis is a good thing that doesn’t require you to compare P1 and P12. You need to compare a tenth of the 10th quarter.
“But that’s true, and certainly we have to do a better job collectively to avoid being published in Q1 or Q2. And the fact that we had to use the second set in Q1 was also not a good start to the session.
