The hope was there again on a Friday of a Formula One weekend that this was going to be the time when someone made a fight of it with Mercedes-GP on pure performance.
The Red Bull Racing cars of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo had split the Mercedes in practice and had looked genuinely quick.
The Hungaroring, made of 14 corners packed into just 4.3 kilometres, does not require strong horsepower, with the main straight only 908 metres in length. It is music to the ears of Red Bull, who are lumbered with lacklustre Renault units.
Unfortunately, they could not live up to that promise in qualifying, although Ricciardo’s fourth place was his and the team’s best performance on a Saturday afternoon since Monaco in May, coincidentally the last track F1 had been to where a strong engine was not vital.
It was status quo at the front as championship leader Lewis Hamilton took his ninth pole position of the season, with Nico Rosberg second to give the German marque their eighth front-row lockout in 2015 from 10 races.
Sebastian Vettel was best of the non-Mercedes runners in third spot in his Ferrari, but only 0.035 seconds ahead of Ricciardo.
It was an encouraging display from Red Bull with Kvyat in seventh place, and the Austrian team, through Ricciardo, can have genuine aspirations of fighting for their first podium finish of 2015.
But the day ended up being another display of the overwhelming dominance of Mercedes.
No car other than Rosberg got within seven-tenths of a second of Hamilton’s pole setting time of 1 min, 22.020 secs.
Rosberg again put in a scruffy performance in qualifying, locking up heavily at Turn 13 on his final, and fastest, lap. The half-second deficit to his world champion teammate would have been depressing for the German to digest last night as he prepared for Sunday’s race.
It is the 21st successive grand prix in which a Mercedes starts at the front, underlying the fact that pole position has now become a private party between Hamilton and Rosberg.
Hamilton is going for a fifth win at the Hungaroring, and he was understandably elated by his dominant display over Rosberg and the rest of the field.
“In terms of how this weekend has gone so far, I’m incredibly happy,” said the double world champion, who has a 17-point lead in the drivers’ standings.
“So far, it is one of the best I’ve had. I can’t remember having a performance like this.”
Rosberg has often struggled with his set-up for single-lap speed this year, and and Saturday was no different.
“It has been up and down all weekend for some unexplained reason,” he said.
“I just wasn’t happy and I don’t understand it. It was a bit inconsistent, it’s difficult to explain.”
Rosberg was more optimistic on his race set-up, but that will not help him if he cannot get ahead of Hamilton into Turn 1 when the race starts.
Overtaking is difficult at the venue. You have to go back to 1997, when Damon Hill dived down the inside of Michael Schumacher, for the last time the lead changed hands on track at the Hungaroring during the race.
So whoever leads out of Turn 1 should fancy their chances of still being ahead of the pack 70 laps later.
The rest of the field will be hoping for a repeat of three weeks ago, when both Mercedes cars bogged down badly and fell down the order off the start in Britain.
The reason Silverstone was comfortably the most enjoyable race this season so far was because of the unpredictability generated by the Mercedes pair having to race cars for position other than themselves.
A repeat of that would certainly be appreciated. If Hamilton does get well away today, his rivals could be in for a long afternoon.
* With agency
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