Marcus Ericsson was happy to advance into the second segment of Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday, but a yellow flag, caused when Lance Stroll spun into the barriers, ruined his best lap in Q2.
With weather conditions progressively worsening, the track conditions were much more difficult when the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team driver attacked for a second time, with the Intermediate tyres struggling in the extremely wet final sector, and ultimately he was forced to settle for fourteenth on the grid.
Ericsson feels the position is still a ‘decent’ one to start from and he can make progress from there, but there was scope for him to make it through to Q3 for the first time in 2018 but for the yellow flags, which also caught out Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo.
“It was a very difficult qualifying with the weather conditions playing a very big part in it,” said Ericsson, who managed to out-qualify team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was eliminated in Q1 and will start down in seventeenth. “Conditions were tricky and reminded me a lot of Hockenheim, but I felt really comfortable.
“It was nice to go into Q2 – it was very close though. In Q2 I had the yellow flag when the track was at its best. I tried to improve but there was too much water on the track.
“It’s still a good result. P14 is a decent place to start from and we will see what we can do from there.”
