Hamilton expects Hungarian GP qualifying to be 'a lot closer'

Lewis Hamilton played down Mercedes' performance on Friday at the Hungaroring, the day's pace setter believing the field will draw "a lot closer" in qualifying on Saturday.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas enjoyed a comfortable advantage in FP1, outpacing their closest rival - Racing Point - by over half a second.

But confirmation in FP2 of the Black Arrows' domination at the twisty Hungaroring was undermined by the adverse weather conditions that impacted the almost pointless afternoon session.

Red Bull, viewed as Mercedes' main competitor in Hungary, put in a rather subdued performance in the morning's dry conditions, with Max Verstappen concluding FP1 P8 and 1.4s adrift from Hamilton.

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But the Briton isn't taking Friday's results at face value.

“I don’t take too much from it,” Hamilton said.

“Everyone is doing something different, a different programme out there in terms of wing and fuel and engine and all these kind of things.

“We got through what we needed to get through. It was going OK.

“I think it’s going to be a lot closer when we get to P3 and qualifying, but yeah, the car, there was some work to do to it, so we did some work.

“Then it rained, and we won’t know until we get another dry session.”

Come rain or shine on Saturday, Mercedes appears set to remain on top based on Hamilton's qualifying masterclass in the wet a week ago in Austria.

But the reigning world champion is expecting a far more difficult task if the rain continues to fall tomorrow given the Hungaroring's specific challenges in the wet.

"No car is perfect, and no driver is perfect. What we do is just try to continue to build on that solid foundation that we have," Hamilton said.

"It is a great car, but we still are learning about it. We’re still trying to understand the small nuances and the changes we can make to just continue to build.

"It was great in the rain in Austria. It’s a little bit different here, it’s higher downforce, but the track seems to be a lot slipperier.

"If it is a wet qualifying, it’s not going to be like last week. However, who knows? Maybe I’ll do a decent job again. We’ll see."

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