Lewis Hamilton beat Valtteri Bottas to a Mercedes one-two ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying.
The seven-time champion beat Bottas by 0.315 seconds with a time set on their first runs as neither Mercedes driver improved on their final laps.
Verstappen did improve on his final run but ended up 0.106secs behind Bottas.
And Verstappen will start the race on the soft tyre, whereas Mercedes have gone for the favoured medium compound.
Hamilton was booed by the large contingent of Dutch fans in the grandstands as he did his interview after the session.
“I have never felt so great with the booing,” Hamilton said. “If anything it just fuels me, so I don’t really mind it.
“It was an amazing qualifying lap that last one. Amazing team work from everyone this weekend, trying to push the car forward developing constantly. It has been amazing to see everyone rallying together.
“The soft tyre is worth something like five metres off the line going into Turn One. It’s surprising seeing them on the soft. Great having a front row lock-out for our team, first time for a long time.”
Verstappen, who starts the race eight points ahead of Hamilton in the championship, said: “The whole weekend we have been a bit behind and it showed again in qualifying. Not what we wanted but we are still there in third and will see what we can do.”
Red Bull’s tyre choice was a surprise as the medium has better pace and durability for a race stint, but Verstappen said he had no choice but to complete his lap on the soft tyres on his second run in second qualifying as the time he set on medium tyres earlier was too marginal and he risked getting knocked out by midfield cars on the soft.
“My lap time on the medium would have been really on the edge for a top 10 so that’s why we decided to finish the lap,” he said.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez was fourth after failing to get around in time to start a final lap.
That happened after the Mercedes drivers in front of the Red Bulls, led by Bottas, did a very slow out lap before their final runs.
Verstappen only just managed to get around in time to complete his final lap but Perez behind him did not.
“What happened there?”he asked the team. “A bit of gamesmanship,” his engineer said.
More to follow