Budapest, 2nd August

Felipe Massa will start the eleventh round of the Formula 1 World Championship from the inside of the second row, having qualified third fastest, while his Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team mate, Kimi Raikkonen is on the outside of the third row, having set the sixth fastest time in the third part of this afternoon's closely contested qualifying session.

Lewis Hamilton took his second consecutive pole position in the McLaren-Mercedes, his fourth this season and indeed the Anglo-German team has locked out the front row as Heikki Kovalainen was second quickest. Sharing the second row with the Brazilian Ferrari driver is Robert Kubica in the BMW, while Kimi has the Toyota of Timo Glock alongside him, the German recording his best ever F1 qualifying result. Not only has Felipe got the better position out of the two Prancing Horse drivers, he also starts from the clean side of the track, whereas Kimi is on the dirty side, which is a bigger disadvantage at this circuit than at most others. The earlier part of qualifying had looked promising for the Scuderia with Felipe setting the fastest time of the day in Q2 when the cars run with the bare minimum weight of fuel to cover the flying lap. However, a little bit of traffic in Q3 cost just the fraction of a second that made the difference between the first and second rows, after it had looked like being a pole shoot-out between him and the English McLaren driver.


Although the Hungarian Grand Prix has a reputation for being dull and processional, in fact it can produce some unusual results and situations. From a driving point of view, it is tough as, despite the fact they increased the length of the pit straight a few years back, the track is essentially a non-stop series of corners with very few opportunities to catch one's breath. The weather has steadily been getting hotter over the weekend and that will also play a part tomorrow in a race that usually lasts more than an hour and a half.