The bad news for Lewis Hamilton’s traditional rivals at Ferrari and Red Bull is that the powerful Mercedes is improving its speed, while another team using its engines is gaining confidence.
Hamilton’s pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday marked his second consecutive and Mercedes’ third in a row, following Valtteri Bottas’ pole at the season-opening Austrian GP two weeks earlier.
“It’s without a doubt a better car than last year,” Hamilton said on Saturday after securing his record-extending 90th career pole, edging out his teammate by .107 seconds.
“We keep pushing each other to the next level,” added Bottas, who won the Austrian GP, with Hamilton following up with a victory at the Styrian GP from pole last weekend.
To make matters worse for Red Bull and Ferrari, third and fourth on the grid went to Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Sergio Pérez, both powered by Mercedes engines.
“The car was on fire today,” Stroll said. “I’m going to try and get some big points tomorrow.”
Racing Point, which finished seventh out of 10 teams in the constructors’ championship last year, has made a significant improvement.
“I’d like to say congratulations to Racing Point for their strong performance in qualifying,” said Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ head of motorsport. “I’m really happy to see them locking out the second row.”
The team is run by Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian billionaire, and his 21-year-old son, Lance, has a chance at a second career podium after finishing third at the Azerbaijan GP in 2024
Ferrari performed well in qualifying last year, with Charles Leclerc edging out Hamilton 8-11 for most poles, but this time, the Ferrari cars were over one second behind Hamilton’s time on Saturday.
Sebastian Vettel will start from fifth, Leclerc from sixth, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from eighth in Sunday’s race.
On a narrow track that is one of the toughest for overtaking in F1, the chances of stopping Hamilton from securing his 86th win, putting him just five away from Schumacher’s record, seem slim.
Verstappen, who claimed pole position here last year and led a tense race until Hamilton passed him late, appears increasingly frustrated with his team’s car.
After winning three races last year, Verstappen had hoped to mount a stronger challenge to Hamilton.
“I don’t know why, but clearly something isn’t working compared to last year, when we had really good car balance around this track,” Verstappen said. “It’s hard to understand why, as we’ve made a lot of changes, but it doesn’t seem to have given us much more lap time. Here, you really need a stable car.”
Schumacher won seven F1 titles—one more than Hamilton so far—but Hamilton’s 90 poles already place him 22 ahead of the legendary Ferrari driver.
“I just have to pinch myself, it doesn’t register,” Hamilton said. “It does not seem real.”
Hamilton has triumphed seven times at the Hungaroring, and with one more win, he could match Schumacher’s record of eight wins at a single track, set at the French GP in Magny-Cours.
Hamilton’s first victory in Hungary came in 2007, the year after Schumacher’s eighth win in France.
Hamilton’s first win for Mercedes was in 2013, the year after he replaced Schumacher at the Silver Arrows.
Both drivers are regarded as among the best in F1 history.
