All eyes were elsewhere, as quietly, from nowhere, against expectation, rolling with momentum, George Russell claimed the first pole position of a young career pointing to the stars.
Belatedly, the cameras turned their attention on the Mercedes man and seconds later his name led all the rest at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
His voice scrambled by emotion, he screamed: ‘Come on, woo-hoo! Come on, yes! You beauty, you beauty! Amazing! We needed that!’
George Russell (centre) pipped the Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc (left) and Carlos Sainz to pole
Russell’s pole position is the first of his career in a result that stunned the rest of the grid
The Brit shouted with delight after crossing the line to claim a shock pole position
So Mercedes’ season of torment took a turn for the better, however precariously in the one-step forward, two-back experience they are enduring. And it was Russell, 24, rather than his more garlanded teammate, Lewis Hamilton, occupying the prime real estate, which was not exactly Plan A in the team manual.
Hamilton’s DRS had got stuck and he was back in the garage, relying on his previous best time as Russell was sweeping his way to the front.
The 37-year-old serial champion was therefore doomed to qualify seventh, his face a bleak picture of disappointment as he conducted his media duties in the paddock afterwards, while the younger Briton’s smiling features beamed out from the big screen behind him.
Max Verstappen suffered mechanical issues in the third qualifying session and will start from a lowly tenth place following a disastrous qualifying for Red Bull
What a difference a day makes. Mercedes were struggling to cling on to the coattails of the leading cars in practice on Friday, so the team toiled late in their trucks. I can vouch for this because I bumped into Russell as I left the Hungaroring deep into that evening. He was cross-eyed from staring at data and was taking himself off to cycle the track to clear his mind.
How it worked, as he qualified 0.044sec ahead Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz with Charles Leclerc third best in the other red car, while Red Bull’s defending champion Max Verstappen was only 10th as he suffered power failure.
Lewis Hamilton also suffered mechanical gremlins during the session with a DRS issue meaning he will only start the race from seventh place
Hamilton will be hoping to improve on race day at a track he has won at eight times
Russell picks up the story of his accomplishment on the twisty circuit. ‘I went round Turn One and I was a tenth-and-a-half up on my previous time,’ he said. ‘I went round Turn Two and I was three-tenths up. Everything was in the window. When you are on one of those laps, and in the groove, it just keeps on coming, keeps on coming.
‘For us as a team it is massive. Yesterday was probably our toughest Friday of the whole season. We were all here until 11pm, morale was pretty down. We felt pretty lost and had to come back. To get pole position 24 hours later is such a feeling because I know what we went through.’
Russell has already earned the moniker ‘Mr Saturday’ for his extraordinary record at Williams in out-qualifying his teammates practically every time.
His best one-lap performance prior to yesterday’s came at Spa last year where he put himself second on the grid in treacherous conditions. He also finished runner-up in the grand prix next day, but that was a farcical non-race comprising two laps behind the safety car.
There was support from British fans at the Hungaroring near Budapest on Saturday
The Ferraris will be tough to withstand during the 70-lap test that comes this afternoon, though Mercedes’ long pace has been intermittently encouraging in recent weeks.
‘I’m already thinking about tomorrow, the run off the line, Turn One, how can I keep the lead and what am I going to have to do to win,’ said Russell.
‘Getting pole is great, but I have learnt that Saturdays don’t mean a huge amount. Sunday is when points and prizes are won, but I’m just so happy about the progress we have made. Going into the summer break this is huge.’
Over at the Mercedes hospitality area, team principal Toto Wolff led the chorus of acclaim for the British driver in his first season with the Silver Arrows, even if he seemed a little sore about Hamilton’s predicament.
‘George is a champion in the making,’ said the Austrian, hardly needing Poirot-like powers of detection to come to that finding. ‘He was a champion in all of the junior categories, in F2 and F3 as a rookie, and we would never have put him in a Mercedes if he didn’t believe what he could be a future world champion.
‘Today is another milestone of the many he is going to achieve.’
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