Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have retained their second-row grid slots for Sunday’s race in Hungary, despite failing to lap within 107% of the fastest time in the Q1 segment of qualifying.
Under normal circumstances the Red Bull pair, along with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, who also advanced beyond Q1 without lapping close enough to Nico Rosberg’s benchmark time, would have been demoted down the grid.
However, the stewards in Budapest have allowed all five drivers to retain their positions “due to the exceptional circumstances experienced during qualifying”, which included four red-flag stoppages in Q1 alone.
Similarly, Renault’s Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen, Williams’ Felipe Massa, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto, and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson - all of whom were knocked out of qualifying in Q1 - have been given discretion to start by the stewards despite failing to lap within 107% of the fastest time, and will line up in the order they finished in FP3.
The stewards also investigated Nico Rosberg over alleged speeding under yellow flags during his pole position lap. However, the German was exonerated after telemetry demonstrated that he had significantly reduced his speed in the yellow-flag zone.
The provisional grid thus reads: Rosberg, Hamilton; Ricciardo, Verstappen; Vettel, Sainz; Alonso, Button; Hulkenberg, Bottas; Grosjean, Kvyat; Perez, Raikkonen; Gutierrez, Nasr; Palmer, Massa; Magnussen, Ericsson; Wehrlein, Haryanto.
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