F1: Hamilton Cruises To Pole In Hungary

Formula 1

F1: Hamilton Cruises To Pole In Hungary

Lewis Hamilton took top honors in qualifying at the Hungaroring...

Jared Turner | Posted July 28, 2012 Budapest (HUN)

Lewis Hamilton's nearly perfect weekend in Hungary remains intact.

After clocking in first, first and second in the three practices leading up to Saturday's qualifying runs, the McLaren driver maintained his hot hand when it really counted as he claimed pole for Sunday's Hungarian GP.

Hamilton (1:20:953), who has failed to finish on the podium in three consecutive events, was followed in time trials by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean (1:21:366) and the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel (1:21:416).

Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen completed the top five.

Positions six through 10 went to Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldonado, Bruno Senna and Nico Hulkenberg.

Hamilton desperately needs a victory on Sunday to inject some hope into his title hopes that have taken a serious hit in recent outings.

"This is motor racing," said the Briton, who captured his 22nd F1 pole. "We know that we've got a lot of work to do, and we're trying to make sure we start that work this weekend."

Vettel also needs a big Sunday to chip away at the points advantage held by championship leader Alonso, who has been Formula One's hottest driver over the last month.

"I think the speed is there but it seems extremely difficult once you lose the balance a little bit," the reigning World Champion said of his car. "I'm not entirely happy with the lap I had. I think Romain was in reach. I think with the progress we made this morning and through qualifying, we should be in a good psotion for the race."

As usual, qualifying produced its share of big surprises.

The biggest on Saturday came from championship runner-up Mark Webber, who led Saturday's final practice at the Hungaroring but failed to advance out of Q2 in his Red Bull.

The Australian will start Sunday's Hungarian GP from 11th on the grid, and will therefore be hard-pressed to secure a podium finish.

"On my last run, I didn't get the most out of the tires," Webber said. "Anyway, that's the way it goes. It's disappointing, obviously, to qualify there, but we'll look forward to the race tomorrow."

Six positions further down the grid will be the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher, who arrived in Hungary coming off back-to-back podium qualifying results in Germany and Great Britain.

But Schumacher's weekend in Hungary got off to a rough start when he crashed his Mercedes on a wet track Friday in P2, and the seven-time World Champion clearly has not fully recovered.

Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix is the 11th of 20 events on the 2012 Formula One calendar, and the last event before the annual month-long August break.

Coming into the weekend, Alonso leads the drivers' standings by 34 points over Webber and 44 over Vettel. Raikkonen (-56) and Hamilton (-62) complete the top five.

Alonso leads the series in victories with three, while Webber, with two victories, is the season's only other winner of multiple races.

Tune in for SPEED's live race coverage at 7:30 a.m. ET Sunday.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.