Lewis Hamilton is on some kind of qualifying streak. Claiming his third-straight pole fourth this season, the Brit just has to turn it into a win at the Hungaroring, which would be his first this season since moving over to Mercedes AMG Petronas.

Hamilton came across the line at 1:19.388, and not even Red Bull’s three-time defending champ Sebastian Vettel could best it with his time of 1:19.426. The Mercedes has shown incredible qualifying pace thus far, giving Hamilton his 30^th career pole position and fourth all-time at the Hungaroring circuit.

Where Hamilton has lacked is his race pace, particularly his race starts, when Vettel’s RB9 seems to shoot from a cannon and take the race lead.

Mercedes will be looking to change that fortune, and will be looking for strong starts from Hamilton and his teammate Nico Rosberg, who starts fourth tomorrow.

The duo was banned from recent tests at Silverstone, where the new Pirelli tires were tested by each team and make their debut in tomorrow’s race. The new tires retain the 2013 compounds, but are matched to last season's construction in an effort to prevent delamination and durability concerns.

Despite the absence from the tests, Mercedes appears ready to tackle the challenge.

“I was really surprised when the guys told me over the radio that I was on pole today,” Hamilton said. “It's great to start from the front but, like we know, the race is where we score the points. Looking to tomorrow, this is a tough circuit to overtake on but it's also a long run down to the first corner, and both Seb and the Lotus cars will be really quick. We have a good car but the race will come down to how we use the tires.”

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean starts a surprising third tomorrow with a fastest lap of 1:19.595, and will play a vital role in the start for the Mercedes of Rosberg, who will be looking to jump ahead and pressure Vettel from behind.

Starting behind Rosberg is Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who took his first Formula One victory at the Hungarian circuit to make him the-then youngest F1 winner in the sport.

Raikkonen starts in sixth, and appeared to struggle with the Lotus car throughout qualifying, even powersliding sideways going into the front straight. It is the second time this season he has been outqualified by his teammate this season, but the team will be looking to repeat its two-three performance from last year when Raikkonen came up from fifth and Grosjean dropped one spot from second.

“It hasn’t been the easiest weekend for me so far,” Raikkonen said. “Maybe the new tires are a bit different – especially on the front – so it’s been hard to find a good setup. We’re getting there little by little and the car was definitely better in qualifying than at any other point this weekend. Obviously P6 is not ideal, but it’s better than we have seen sometimes so we’ll try and see what we can do tomorrow.

Behind Raikkonen, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo start seventh and eighth, respectively. Coming off a strong testing performance for Red Bull at Silverstone, Ricciardo is looking at achieve a strong finish to strengthen his chances of driving in the top teams vacant seat next year.

“It was good to get into Q3 again,” Ricciardo said. “We seem to make a habit of finding a little bit extra for qualifying, although ideally, I’d like to be on the pace right from Friday and chip away at the lap times within the top ten. I think we got the most out of the car this afternoon. I was happy with the way I drove and I am pleased with my form at the moment. But now comes the bit of the weekend that counts and we will try to get it right, beginning with making a good start.”

Finishing out the top ten, Sergio Perez squeezed out his McLaren teammate Jenson Button from the top ten, qualifying his car in ninth after a mishap in final practice. The Mexican driver had a shunt when his car hit the wall, damaging the left side. Despite the heavy repairs, the team decided against a gearbox change which would have resulted in a 10-place penalty. It is the fourth time Perez has outqualified his teammate this season.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber was the only driver not to put in a time in the final qualifying session, suffering from a KERS malfunction and gearbox troubles. It marks the continuation of a disappointing final season for the Aussie driver who announced his retirement following this year, complete with DNFs, tire-mounting problems, and clashes with his teammate Vettel.

“That was a massively disappointing qualifying session,” Webber said. Obviously we had a lot of issues with the car and we left a lot of lap time in the garage, with items which weren’t working on the car at their optimum. We had no KERS, and a basic gearbox setting that we couldn’t get out of, which cost a lot of lap time. I was happy with how I drove, but it doesn’t count in qualifying when you need everything at the absolute limit. Instead of challenging for the front row, we were challenging for the last row of Q3. We’re out of position with a car that is capable of much more, but I didn’t have the car today to challenge for the results I thought we could get.”

With track temperatures today reaching a high of 48 degrees C, tomorrow’s race will be an excellent first test for the new Pirelli tires and challenge the drivers throughout the day. The race starts tomorrow, with coverage beginning at 7:55 a.m. EST on TSN, with a replay at 5:00 p.m. on TSN2.

QUALIFYING RESULTS