Lewis Hamilton produced yet another masterclass of wet-weather driving to claim pole position in a chaotic qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
As conditions changed throughout the session, the worst of the rain would be in Q3 as a downpour soaked the track midway through Q2, requiring all drivers to use the extreme wet tyres in the battle for pole.
And it was then that the Mercedes driver really showed his skill comfortably setting the fastest time during the first series of flying laps on the first set of tyres.
Though Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas would beat his initial best on a new set of wets, Hamilton would re-emerge and do enough to reclaim top spot with a 1m35.658s, a quarter of a second clear of his teammate in second.
Ferrari just had no response to the German manufacturer in the wet, although Raikkonen felt pole would have been “easy” had it not been for traffic as he finished third, ahead of Sebastian Vettel as the German’s domination in the dry ended.
The Scuderia’s problems were nothing compared to those at Red Bull, however, as the team most expected to flourish in the rain instead fell down the field.
In Q1, despite a thunderstorm over the circuit, the track itself would dry out enough for slicks after a downpour pre-qualifying, but Daniel Ricciardo would be the only driver to use the Soft tyre compared to the rest on Ultrasoft.
Each lap he set would leave him in the knockout zone as others improved before eventually, he would sneak through to Q2.
The Australian’s luck would run out, however, as a crash for Lance Stroll meant he missed the best of the conditions in the opening minutes of the second segment and would be left in P12 despite attempts to improve on the full wet tyre.
Teammate Max Verstappen would be more comfortable in making Q3 but wouldn’t have the pace many expected as he fell behind fellow Red Bull stable members Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly to seventh on the grid.
Brendon Hartley would only be a tenth behind in the second Toro Rosso in P8 as the two Haas cars completed the top 10 with Kevin Magnussen ahead of Romain Grosjean.
Fernando Alonso produced another radio moment to add to his collection as his McLaren team tried in vain to move him up from P11 as the conditions worsened in the second half of Q2 but that would still put the Spaniard ahead of Ricciardo.
Nico Hulkenberg was another driver caught out by the crash of Stroll in 13th with Marcus Ericsson 14th and the Canadian bringing up the Q2 order in 15th.
As the circuit improved in Q1 but more drops of rain fell, there was a time when it looked as though Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull could have started last as they were the last teams to switch to the slick tyres.
Instead, the weather held just long enough for them to safely make it through and leave Stoffel Vandoorne in 16th in the second McLaren.
The two rookies, Charles Leclerc and Sergey Sirotkin also struggled due to the limited amount of wet running there has been in 2018 with the Monegasque 17th and the Russian last.
Perhaps most surprising though was the two Force India’s of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez in 18th and 19th as their difficult weekend on and off the track continues.
The full list of times from qualifying can be seen below:
