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Mercedes decided to go out of their comfort zone with tyre preparation in Hungary, and pole for George Russell followed.

The Silver Arrows, without a pole or victory to that point in 2022, arrived at the Hungarian Grand Prix with many once again tipping them for a strong result, Lewis Hamilton an eight-time winner at the Hungaroring.

However, the race weekend did not get off to a very competitive start, with the wet conditions of FP3 dropping Mercedes even further off the pace.

Mercedes’ experiments with setup had not paid off, but as their trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin humorously put it to Auto Motor und Sport, “at least we learned what not to do”.

Despite the funny intent, the statement rang true, as Mercedes went into qualifying and thrived on a track that was now dry.

But, few expected Russell to do what he did as on his final flying lap, the Brit snatching pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the first pole position of his Formula 1 career.

Team principal Toto Wolff explained that Mercedes had gone with a riskier strategy in qualifying, overlooking the steady warm-up laps to preserve the tyres, and instead giving them a tougher out-lap to build temperature.

“We were less conservative than usual with the rim heating,” Wolff stated.

Qualifying then was a far cry from the scenes of