Brendon Hartley was “incredibly happy” as he made it into the third part of qualifying for the first time in his career.
The New Zealander will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from eighth position on the grid after rain caused chaos in qualifying at the Hungaroring.
“The conditions were really tricky out there, but I’m incredibly happy to make it into Q3 for the first time!” said Hartley.
“I had a couple of little mistakes at the end of Q3 when I started pushing the limits and I fell just short of Pierre’s time, which put us in P8.”
Both Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda cars reached Q3 and Hartley heaped praise on the team for the strategic decisions in the hectic session, with Q1 being held predominantly on dry weather tyres, Q2 on Intermediates and Q3 on Full Wets.
“The whole way through Qualifying the team did a brilliant job with communication and strategy and the car felt good,” said the New Zealander.
“I think we’re always hanging around the top 10, and to get both cars through today is a really big achievement.”
Hartley knows the Hungaroring is a tricky place to overtake at and is hoping for a good strategy to help him score points for a second race in a row.
“It’s quite hard to pass here so I need to have the best possible start and a good first lap,” he said. “There might be some strategy in play as it’s a little bit of follow the leader around here, so hopefully we can hang on to a points position tomorrow.”
