Fred Vasseur/Ferrari sensed a heavy penalty: warning for Hamilton came too late

What a pole position that would have been! Lewis Hamilton was in dazzling form at the Hungaroring; he seemed set to secure his 105th Formula 1 pole – almost to the day three years after the 2023 Hungaroring race!

It would have been his tenth on this circuit, a new record, of course. And – a bit of a numbers game – the driver with number 44 would have become the oldest driver to take a GP pole, 44 years after Mario Andretti (Monza 1982); the American was also driving a Ferrari back then.

Instead, the loyal Tifosi had to pack away their flags, as that pesky Lando Norris was a measly 12 thousandths of a second faster than Hamilton.

Many of the Tifosi had no idea at the time that Lewis Hamilton would have to explain himself to the race stewards for obstructing Oscar Piastri. The regulations are clear on this, and the race stewards have been penalising such offences very consistently in recent months – with a three-place grid penalty.

With Hamilton in P2 and Charles Leclerc in P3, Fred Vasseur is asked to comment. The French Ferrari team principal says: “All in all, it was a decent performance, but of course we’re also disappointed – because it was a rather chaotic qualifying session.”

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“In the first part of qualifying, Leclerc lost a lap for breaching the track limits. Then there was Hadjar’s spin. That meant Charles needed an extra set of tyres, which wasn’t part of the plan.”

“For Hamilton, it’s obviously a real blow to miss out on pole by such a narrow margin, and then there’s the incident with Piastri. That’s obviously not good at all.”

“We tried to warn Lewis during that incident, but in those few seconds we had a hell of a lot of balls to juggle. The fact is: our warning to Hamilton came too late.”

“As for the timing: a year ago, we were the first out, and afterwards everyone said Leclerc’s pole position was only down to the fact that we had a clear run. And today we were out first again, but we’re not on pole, and this time everyone will be asking: ‘Why did you go out so early?’”

Commenting on the upcoming race, the Frenchman said: “First of all, we’ve got that long run to the first corner. We know it’s going to be hotter on Sunday, so the tyres will be pushed even further to the limit. I think the outcome of this Grand Prix is completely up in the air.”