F1 Paddock Notebook - Hungarian GP Saturday

Recapping all of the additional news and notes from the Hungaroring on Saturday, Crash.net F1 Digital Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- Lewis Hamilton swept to the 77th pole position of his Formula 1 career with a dominant display in the final stage of Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, heading up a one-two finish for Mercedes. The result saw Hamilton add to his record haul of F1 poles, and was his fifth of the season. He is now just one shy of Michael Schumacher's record of seven poles at the Hungaroring.

- Changeable weather conditions meant that none of the fastest times in Q2 were set on a slick compound tyre. This means all drivers starting tomorrow's race have a free choice of starting compound, with the Ultrasofts, Softs and Mediums available to them.

- Valtteri Bottas enjoyed his best qualifying performance in Hungary on Saturday, securing a front row start at the Hungaroring for the first time in F1. Bottas and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen did however once again miss out on scoring the first all-Finnish front row.

- Raikkonen was left disappointed in third place for Ferrari, believing pole was "comfortably" within reach. He will line up third on the grid ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel, who had topped both FP2 and FP3 for Ferrari.

- Today marked Vettel's worst qualifying of the season, who has been inside the top three at every other race so far in 2018.

- Carlos Sainz Jr. impressed for Renault by taking fifth overall, finishing as the highest Renault-powered driver. Sainz admitted he did not think P5 was possible with or without rain, but didn't get ahead of himself even when he saw he sat third at one stage ahead of the final runs.

- Sainz will be joined on the third row of the grid by Pierre Gasly, who matched his best qualifying of the season in Bahrain by finishing the session sixth for Toro Rosso. Gasly was thankful for the rain, and said he would gladly take more tomorrow, but admitted he found it difficult to keep his car on-track when on his push laps.

- Gasly was joined in Q3 by Toro Rosso teammate Brendon Hartley, who reached the final stage of qualifying for the first time in his F1 career. Hartley's previous best F1 qualifying also came in Bahrain, when he qualified 11th. Hartley was disappointed not to qualify higher, having been "conservative" on his final push lap after earlier errors in the session.

- Haas struggled for pace in the wet as Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean finished P9 and P10 respectively in Q3. Grosjean felt he was blocked by Max Verstappen on his fast lap, but the stewards opted to take no action over the incident.

- Verstappen was Red Bull's lead driver in qualifying, but he could only finish the session seventh overall. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo had a qualifying to forget, nearly dropping out in Q1 when running on the Soft tyre when the rest of the pack was on Ultrasofts, and then qualifying 12th after being one of the later runners in Q2 when the worst of the rain hit the track.

- Fernando Alonso qualified 11th for the second race running, but was frustrated by the F1 TV director's decision to broadcast his comments about not wishing to continue running in Q2 due to the wet weather, having told the McLaren team it wouldn't matter if he had a "rocketship" as conditions were too wet to improve. Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne was eliminated in Q1 for the fifth race in a row in 16th.

- Nico Hulkenberg could only qualify 13th after Renault failed to fill his car with enough fuel for the start of Q2, meaning he was not able to set a lap time when the track was at its best.

- Marcus Ericsson outqualified Sauber teammate Charles Leclerc for the first time since Bahrain, taking 14th. Ericsson has now reached Q2 for three races running.

- One day after entering administration, Force India ailed to its worst qualifying performance of the season as Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez finished 18th and 19th respectively.

- Perez opened up about his legal action against Force India that pushed it into administration, explaining that he was approached by a couple of team members to do so in a move that would ensure the whole operation did not go bust. Perez stressed his loyalty to the team and said he felt "heartbroken" to have triggered the recent movements that were confirmed on Friday night.

- At a time when Force India is known to be receiving interest from other teams for Esteban Ocon in 2019, the administration action is reported to have nullified the option the team has on the Frenchman's services for next season. This could help accelerate a move to Renault, which may have far-reaching effects on the driver market.

- The FIA confirmed ahead of FP3 that Lewis Hamilton had taken a new energy store and control electronics for the remainder of the weekend. Both are his second element usage of the season, meaning there is no penalty.