Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying betting tips and F1 predictions: Ferrari star Leclerc can take the fight to Verstappen

Where to watch Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying

Practice three Sky Sports F1, 11.30am Saturday
Qualifying Sky Sports F1, 3pm Saturday

Best bets

Charles Leclerc fastest qualifier
1pt each-way 15-2 BoyleSports

Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying predictions

Max Verstappen was only 11th fastest on practice day for the Hungarian Grand Prix, but no alarm bells will be ringing in the garage of the driver who has won the last six races.

On a day of mixed weather conditions, the Red Bull driver chose instead to focus on long runs in preparation for the race, and those laps suggested he will once again be in a class of his own on Sunday afternoon.

As well as being unbeatable on Sundays, Verstappen has been virtually flawless in qualifying this season, and the Dutch destroyer is just 1-2 to earn his sixth pole position in a row on Saturday.

In fact, apart from in Saudi Arabia where his car broke down, and in Miami where the session was ended prematurely, Verstappen has been beaten only once in qualifying.

There is some encouragement for the chasers, though. That reverse came in Azerbaijan, which like Hungaroring has plenty of slow corners, while in Monaco Verstappen claimed pole position by less than a tenth of a second.

Charles Leclerc was the man who beat him in Baku, and the Ferrari ace could be worth an interest to repeat the feat.

The Ferrari star topped the practice times, with the first lap of his runs proving eye-catchingly quick, even if the performance quickly dropped off afterwards.

There is a tweaked format for qualifying this weekend, whereby the drivers can use only hard compound tyres in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3.

It’s unlikely to have a huge effect except that there will be more traffic in the first segment due to drivers running multiple laps.

McLaren had expected to struggle to match their impressive performance at Silverstone, where Lando Norris qualified and finished second, but the Englishman was only 0.015 off the top of the times yesterday.

Mercedes, though, appeared to be having difficulties with the handling of their car, Lewis Hamilton ending the day 16th and George Russell slowest of all.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez could use a strong weekend after failing to make the top-ten qualifying shootout at five races in a row.

His weekend did not start promisingly, though, as he crashed on his first lap in the morning and ended the afternoon 18th.

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