By Alan Baldwin
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Lewis Hamilton has a record 104 Formula One pole positions but Saturdays have become tricky for Mercedes’ seven times world champion and Hungary marked a year since he last qualified fastest.
Hamilton returned, emotionally, to the top of the podium at Silverstone on July 7 — his first win since 2021 — but the 39-year-old has outqualified teammate George Russell only three times so far in 2024.
Hamilton qualified fifth at the Hungaroring on Saturday — a circuit where he has had a record nine career poles — while Russell was only 17th.
“We came to try and be at the front and you can never be satisfied,” said Hamilton.
Team boss Toto Wolff saw “a total underperformance from literally everybody involved here” on a deeply disappointing day for Mercedes.
Hamilton’s most recent pole was in Hungary on July 22 last year and it remains his only one since 2021. The next chance for the sport’s most successful driver will be in Belgium next weekend.
Russell has had two poles and a win so far this season.
“Lewis hasn’t disguised the fact that Saturdays were his tough day,” Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin told reporters at the Hungaroring on Friday.
“He’s struggled with this whole generation of car, really, not suiting his style. He’s been working on how he drives.”
Shovlin said there were “fairly fine margins” between Russell and Hamilton, whose confidence in the car was coming back in his last season before joining Ferrari in 2025.
“We’ll keep working on that. And I’m sure that we’ll see hopefully some more Lewis pole positions as well,” said Shovlin, who explained that Hamilton’s long run pace had never been in question.
“Most of our work has been trying to give him a car that you can drive (in) the very attacking style, extract the lap time out of it without it just sort of breaking away on the way in and catching him by surprise,” said Shovlin.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
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