While nobody would have blamed Lewis Hamilton if he left the Hungaroring track in Budapest wondering what he had done to deserve his array of bad luck, it could have been worse.

If the fire at the rear of his Mercedes-GP car, that stopped him on his first flying lap in qualifying yesterday, had happened today, he would have left Hungary with no points to his name.

He may be starting from the rear of the field, either on the track or in the pit lane, while teammate and world championship leader Nico Rosberg starts on pole position, but at least he has the opportunity to salvage something by scoring some points.

Realistically, as it was seven days ago in Germany when a brake failure conspired to leave him 20th on the starting grid, today is all about damage limitation.

If it is a dry race, only car problems can realistically prevent Rosberg from triumphing for a fifth time this season and extending his lead over Hamilton, currently at 14 points, in the championship standings.

Realistically, the question is by how much he can extend it. Hamilton valiantly came through from 20th to third at Hockenheim, but it will be one of the drives of the 2008 world champion’s career if he gets near the top three today.

It was not easy to pass in Germany, but it was possible, thanks to the long straight leading to Turn 6. Unfortunately, there is no comparable section of track at the Hungaroring.

The only viable spot in which to pass is located on the run to Turn 1, but given the winding curve of Turn 14 that leads into it, staying close enough to be able to use the Drag Reduction System (DRS) will not be easy.

Hamilton has the strongest car in the field, with the best engine, so he should be able to finish in the top eight at minimum, but whether he can clear the Red Bull Racing and Williams cars, as well as Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari, will be the decisive factor if it stays dry.

Hamilton was rightly gloomy after an oil leak sent his day up in flames.

“We’ll have to replace the engine and gearbox, but with that penalty, it’s a good thing I can’t go any further back,” he told the BBC. “There’s a lot going through my mind, but I just have to try to turn it into positives until tomorrow. I think it’s getting to the point when it’s kind of beyond bad luck. We need to do better.”

The other reason for Hamilton to maintain hope relates to the possibility of rain today. A shower at the start of final qualifying yesterday caused chaos, with Rosberg fortunate to escape as he ran wide at Turn 1, while Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren-Mercedes speared into the barriers at the same corner. The rain was brief, but enough to demonstrate the havoc it could wreak.

The is a potential benefit to qualifying’s fiery end. With Hamilton’s car damaged from the fire, it means he starts from the pit lane rather than on the back row of the grid, due to a new gearbox and engine having to be fitted to his car following the damage caused by the fire.

While that means he would be last into the first corner, since he cannot leave the pit area until the last car has passed at the start, it would allow late set-up changes to his car, setting it up favourably for wet conditions if that is the order of the day.

Jenson Button won from 14th on the grid in the wet in 2006, so the unlikely can happen when the track is soaked. But Hamilton cannot rely on rain, and his main hope, if it is dry, is that Mercedes can find a strategy that will put him in clear air at points in the race to allow him to take advantage of the car beneath him.

For the Briton’s title rival Rosberg, this is a golden chance to reopen a large points lead in the championship, after seeing a 29-point advantage evaporate after a gearbox failure in Britain earlier this month.

The German, whose pole victory yesterday was his 10th in F1, said: “It’s a free opportunity tomorrow. I need to play it safe and avoid any unnecessary things happening and get as many points as possible.”

World champion Sebastian Vettel is on the front row with him in his Red Bull Racing car, with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and the second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo completing the top four.

* With agency