Strong result is vital - Hamilton

By Andrew Benson Chief F1 writer McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has admitted that it is vital he converts pole position into a strong result at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

He is 62 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso after a series of setbacks in recent races.

Continue reading the main story

“The upgrades are working, you have to keep pushing, you always need more but for now they've done a really good job”

Lewis Hamilton Hamilton said: "I hope we can transfer this into a good result. It's very much needed.

"It has been a very long time. As long as we remain focused on getting results anything is possible this season."

Hamilton has not been fastest in qualifying since the Spanish Grand Prixin May, when he was demoted to the back of the grid for a technical infringement, and his last victory was in the Canadian Grand Prix four races ago.

Since then, he has failed to finish in the European Grand Prix in Valencia after crashing in the closing stages, taken an eighth place in the British GP and then retired again with a gearbox problem caused by a puncture in Germany last weekend.

But some upgrades that McLaren introduced in Germany, and which improved the car in the dry, have continued to perform well in Hungary.

Hamilton was on pole by nearly half a second and set two laps fast enough to start at the front of the grid.

Alongside him on the front row is Lotus's Romain Grosjean, with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel third, followed by the second McLaren of Jenson Button, Grosjean's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso.

2 Both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have two Hungarian GP wins to their name

Grosjean, who is in his first full season in F1, has been in erratic form in the last few races, and Hamilton said he hoped the Frenchman would keep his head at the start.

"I hope Grosjean is in the right frame of mind as I am and we have a nice, good, safe and fair battle down to the first corner," Hamilton said, "and I hope we have a strong race together."

Of his own prospects, Hamilton said: "My feeling is the start is most important because I've had a lot of bad starts this year - a lot of clutch issues, and I'm really hoping tomorrow we don't have that and we're able to put our strategy into force and I'm able to look after my tyres the way I want to.

"Being able to get into a lead at the first corner makes it easier to win the race.

"The upgrades are working, you have to keep pushing, you always need more but for now they've done a really good job. I don't know how they're going to work in the long runs."

Hungarian GP: Lewis Hamilton delighted with pole

Jenson Button, who was a close second behind Alonso in the German Grand Prix, was disappointed with fourth place - he was 0.63 seconds slower than Hamilton.

He said he was not entirely happy with the car but felt he could have a strong race.

"Lewis did a very quick lap," said Button. "I didn't really get it together, not great, but it's all right. Qualifying is done, it's reasonable and we can race well."

Saturday, 28 July: Qualifying highlights on BBC Two and online at 17:15 BST. Sunday, 29 July: Race 12:45 BST; BBC Sport website live text and audio commentary and BBC Radio 5 live sports extra & Race highlights 19:00 BST BBC One/BBC HD/online.

View the original article here