Qualifying at the Hungaroring

With the track temperature reaching a 48 degrees Celsius, and Esteban Gutiérrez is the first to take to the track in Q1, followed closely by Pastor Maldonado.

As more and more drivers make it to track, the McLaren team was still working furiously in the garage to repair the damage to Sergio Perez's car which happened when he crashed in third practice this morning having just set the third quickest time.

As the time hit the half way mark in Q3, the leader board was in a constant state of change as many of the top teams were yet to enter the track. It wasn't until the timing indicated six minutes left that the Ferrari's and Lotus'.

But as the track temperatures reached 50 degrees Celsius and 19 minutes had passed in Q1, all 22 drivers had set a times. Then it came time to race for Q2.

It was a Mercedes one-two as Nico Rosberg moved to the top of the charts, 0.013 seconds quicker than his team-mate Lewis Hamilton with Romain Grosjean only 0.097 seconds off the pace in the third. But a big disappointment for Force India as their man, Paul di Resta failed to make it though. After a busy segment (once it finally got going), here is the list of eliminated drivers after Q1:

17) Esteban Gutiérrez 1:21.724s
18) Paul di Resta 1:22.043s
19) Charles Pic 1:23.007s
20) Giedo van der Garde 1:23.333s
21) Jules Bianchi 1:23.787s
22) Max Chilton 1:23.997s

Q2 started and it looked as thought there were no takers. Until movement in the Lotus garage and Kimi Räikkönen burst onto track. Within two minutes, nearly half the remaining drivers were out.

Four minutes in and the inevitable radio transmission was hear, Webber was advised that his KERS had failed. and that will cost the Australian through the session. A minute later, as the wounded Red Bull continued to lap the track, his team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, entered the track with the pair of Mercedes.

Watching as the Mercedes pair were setting lap times, it looked as though both Rosberg and Hamilton were out to beat each other. When Lewis Hamilton first was signed to Mercedes, everyone thought that we would be the number one driver at the team. But as the 2013 season has progressed, Nico Rosberg has shown that he is maturing into a fantastic driver. Here in Hungary, the pair seemed to be having a race of their own in Q2.

With less than two minutes left in Q2, Mark Webber came back to track to race the other 15 driver's for a spot in the Top Ten Shootout. As the checkered flag ended the second session in qualifying, many driver's made great improvements on their lap times, but others fell through the ranks and were pushed out of Q3.

An entertaining segment in qualifying ended and following drivers have been eliminated after Q2:

11) Adrian Sutil 1:20.569s
12) Nico Hülkenberg 1:20.580s
13) Jenson Button 1:20.777s
14) Jean-Éric Vergne 1:21.029s
15) Pastor Maldonado 1:21.133s
16) Vallteri Bottas 1:21.219s

Q3 and all but one driver was out on track, preparing to set a lap time. By the time the clock showed three minutes left, eight out of ten drivers had set a time and mad their ways back to their respective garages. As happens in many qualifying sessions, teams and drivers were waiting for the very last moment to better their time.

But as most drivers were making their way back onto track, there was one driver who was out of his car and off into the back of the pits. Mark Webber was out of Qualifying. But as many fans were upset with the prospect of Webber not making it closer to pole, his results from previous races indicate that we should not count him out. We have seen Mark Webber make his way from P18 to P4 and from 83 seconds behind P21 to P7 (after loosing a wheel in the pits).

With Lewis Hamilton taking pole ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Sunday has certainly been set up to play out a fantastic race. With all statistics pointing to someone rather than the pole sitter likely to win the race, only time will tell.

Lewis Hamilton	P1
Sebastian Vettel	P2
Romain Grosjean	P3
Nico Rosberg	P4
Fernando Alonso	P5
Kimi Räikkönen	P6
Felipe Massa	P7
Daniel Ricciardo	P8
Sergio Perez	P9
Mark Webber	P10
Adrian Sutil	P11
Nico Hülkenberg	P12
Jenson Button	P13
Jean-Éric Vergne	P14
Pastor Maldonado	P15
Vallteri Bottas	P16
Esteban Gutiérrez	P17
Paul di Resta	P18
Charles Pic	P19
Giedo van der Garde	P20
Jules Bianchi	P21
Max Chilton	P22