Sebastian Vettel’s 23rd career pole was achieved with a Q3 time of 1:19.815, which was enough to see off the challenge of Lewis Hamilton, who lines up alongside the world champion on the front row.

Mark Webber’s Q3 time of 1:20.474 means he’ll start Sunday’s race in P6, alongside Fernando Alonso in P5. Ahead of them are Jenson Button and Felipe Massa, in P3 and P4 respectively, while Nico Rosberg in P7, Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher and Sergio Perez complete the top 10.

Pole Position Sebastian Vettel Q1: 1:21.740 Q2: 1:21.095 Q3: 1:19.815

“I think it was a very good session for us. The McLarens were very quick, so we’ve done the right thing and I felt much more comfortable this morning. Q1 and Q2 was about getting through to the last session and I’m very pleased with the result. We changed a lot on the car overnight and the boys were working pretty hard and didn’t get much sleep, but I think if we have a result like this it’s the best way to say thanks, so I’m very happy. I’ve got the confidence back, today I felt much more comfortable in the car and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

P2 Lewis Hamilton Q1: 1:21.636 Q2: 1:21.105 Q3: 1:19.978

“It’s great to see the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team with both cars on the front two rows – it’s a sign that there’s real pace here now. Everyone in the team is doing a fantastic job and we were genuinely competitive today. At one stage during Q3 I was up: I had half a tenth in reserve. But then I went a little bit wide, which triggered a big oversteer moment, and the result was that I lost that crucial bit of time. But the points aren’t given out for today, and I’m feeling good about tomorrow. I’m very excited about the race, in fact, because we had quite a good long run yesterday and we’ll work hard to build on that pace overnight and take it into tomorrow. We’re in the fight – and, with a good start, we can definitely challenge for the win.”

P3 Jenson Button Q1: 1:22.038 Q2: 1:20.578 Q3: 1:20.024

“All in all, I guess I’m pretty happy with P3. I’ll start from the clean side of the track, and I’m feeling very positive about the race. Having said that, after a lap that was as close to pole as mine was today, you always catch yourself thinking that there must have been a little bit here or a little bit there that would have been enough to bridge the gap, which was just two-tenths this afternoon, but to be fair to myself I actually think I drove a pretty decent quali-lap. To be honest, qualifying has been a bit of an issue for me recently – and, although I relish attacking any circuit in an effort to make up places on a Sunday afternoon, I guess you’re always going to be playing catch-up if you start much farther back than the first two rows. So, this weekend, it’s nice to be in a position to drive for a win from the outset, and that’s definitely what I’ll be attempting to do tomorrow.”

P4 Felipe Massa Q1: 1:22.130 Q2: 1:21.099 Q3: 1:20.350

“Usually our rivals find something extra for qualifying and we make a step forward in the race: we will see tomorrow if this unwritten rule will also be confirmed at this track. I hope I have a car that is competitive, as it was in the final part of qualifying. Again this morning, I had too much oversteer and then, after making a few changes, it ended up the other way: we made a further adjustment to the front wing and the car’s handling was much better. It’s difficult to predict how many stops there will be: four is not impossible, three absolutely probable. Much will depend on the length of the first stint: that’s where it will be clear which way to go for the following stops. What does it mean to me to be ahead of my team-mate for the first time this year? I am pleased, but what counts is being ahead of everyone and I hope we soon get some qualifying sessions where we are the best. Here I don’t think I could have got under the 1.20 mark: McLaren and Red Bull are very strong and will be so tomorrow. My only complaint is starting from the dirty side of the track: I know how penalising it can be at this track.”

P5 Fernando Alonso Q1: 1:21.578 Q2: 1:20.262 Q3: 1:20.365

“It’s the same result as a week ago, so yet again today, we’re neither surprised nor disappointed. It’s true I did not do a perfect lap in Q3 and I’m happy to admit that, but I don’t think I could have made it to the front row. Third place was within our grasp and it would have been a great place from which to start the race, but others did better than us, including my team-mate who drove a nice lap: it’s important that both our cars are in positions from which we can fight for a place on the podium. All the same, better fifth than fourth as it means at least I start from the clean side of the track. It seems that when it’s time for Q3, Red Bull has a magic button that suddenly makes them go faster, but then it seems the button switches off in the race! It’s always very difficult to overtake here and I don’t think DRS will change that much: maybe a good tow and a gust of wind will be of more use. We will try and move up a few places tomorrow: we will need to maintain a good pace, doing a perfect job at the pit stops, of which I think there will be a lot, maybe three or four, because tyre degradation is significant. It will also be important to get the timing of the stops right. I reckon anything could still happen: it will be a very open race.”

P6 Mark Webber Q1: 1:22.208 Q2: 1:20.890 Q3: 1:20.474

“Third row is not where I want to be – I didn’t get the best out of the car and out of the tyres. KERS was up and down a bit, I didn’t have it in Q2, I had it on the last lap in Q3, but in the end I wasn’t quick enough and couldn’t get the lap time. So, we have to come back tomorrow and see where we are.”

P7 Nico Rosberg Q1: 1:22.996 Q2: 1:21.243 Q3: 1:21.098

“Qualifying in seventh place was ok today; we had a good set-up after this morning’s practice and I did a good lap in Q3. I’m pleased to have saved one set of new option tyres for the race which will hopefully help me to score some good points.”

P8 Adrian Sutil Q1: 1:22.237 Q2: 1:22.000 Q3: 1:21.445

“I’m very pleased with my qualifying and it feels great to be starting from eighth for the second race in a row. This morning in final practice things did not look so good because I was struggling with a general lack of grip. We changed quite a few things for qualifying – obviously the right things – and this afternoon the car felt really good and I found the lap times we felt were possible. In the past the Hungaroring has not been a track where we have been very strong because it’s a maximum downforce track, so it feels great to show once again that our car is competitive everywhere. The race tomorrow will be all about getting the strategy spot on, but we’re starting in a good place and I’m looking forward to it.”

P9 Michael Schumacher Q1: 1:22.876 Q2: 1:21.852 Q3: 1:21.907

“The positive thing that I can take from qualifying today is that I will be starting from the better side of the grid in ninth place. However there are also things which we need to investigate further as the first two sectors did not work out well for us today. They were fine with the prime tyres, but not with the super softs, so we will have a close look into the reasons why. As always, we will try to do the best that we can in the race tomorrow.”

P10 Sergio Perez Q1: 1:23.067 Q2: 1:22.157 Q3: No time

“I am very happy. It is the second time that I have made it into Q3 and the first time I can celebrate it. My fastest lap in Q2 was a really good one, I think we achieved the maximum possible today. The team handled the conditions very well, and the strategy was really good. But all what matters is tomorrow. Our race pace should be good, and I hope I can improve and score some good points.”

P11 Paul di Resta Q1: 1:22.976 Q2: 1:22.256

“Starting in eleventh place is not too bad, but I was hoping to be a little bit higher up. I’m still in a good position to score some points tomorrow and it’s nice to be starting from the cleaner side of the grid. We had a bit of a messy run in Q1 on the supersoft tyre, but other than that our prime run was very good and I was happy with the car. It’s just my final lap in Q2 wasn’t quite there so maybe I should have been a bit more adventurous. In practice we’ve shown that we can be competitive over longs runs and I’m optimistic that we can carry that through to the race.”

P12 Vitaly Petrov Q1: 1:23.070 Q2: 1:22.284

“The difficulty we had was warming up the tyres because the weather was so changeable. I also encountered quite a lot of understeer, especially in turn nine, which cost me two-tenths and practically put an end to my chance of getting in Q3. It is this, combined with traction problems that have been our main problems so far this weekend. Sauber is looking increasingly competitive with us now so we need to understand where the problems lie and rectify them because qualifying where we have been recently is not enough; we are more ambitious than that, so the focus will turn to how we make the best out of the situation tomorrow.”

P13 Kamui Kobayashi Q1: 1:23.278 Q2: 1:22.435

“After we had struggled quite a lot in the free practice this morning, it was much better in qualifying. It was not easy, as we changed the set-up but the conditions also changed. My final lap in Q2 was okay, but I missed to get into Q3. Of course the target for tomorrow is to score points. I have the feeling that the life of both tyre compounds is rather short, so this will make it an exciting Grand Prix here.”

P14 Nick Heidfeld Q1: 1:23.024 Q2: 1:22.470

“Today was again not what we would have hoped for; P14 is not in our line of thinking when we step into the garage for qualifying, though perhaps it’s an indication of where we stand right now. At the moment, we are finding it tough to extract more from the car. We’ll still be going into tomorrow absolutely fighting for higher positions; gaining some places in the race is very achievable. For this to happen, we will need a good start and the right strategy, so we’ll be grafting to make both those happen when we line up here tomorrow afternoon.”

P15 Rubens Barrichello Q1: 1:23.075 Q2: 1:22.684

“Everything was running so well and we had a promising strategy in place, but I couldn’t engage KERS in sector one of my last lap, and that compromised my time. I still had a pretty good lap, but I’m disappointed because we had a competitive run earlier on with the primes and so were thinking that 11th or 12th was possible on the option. Still, we’ve saved enough tyres and with a solid strategy we can have a better race tomorrow.”

P16 Jaime Alguersuari Q1: 1:23.285 Q2: 1:22.979

“I think I did the maximum I could today, given that we were saving the tyres for the race. I believe our car set-up for the race can be very effective, therefore I am confident for tomorrow. I don’t know if points will be possible, but let’s see how the race evolves. Anything can happen tomorrow, with seventy laps and many different strategies, so I hope that ours is the one that pays off!”

P17 Pastor Maldonado Q1: 1:23.847

“We decided not to run in Q2 to save a set of options. It is essential we get the best result we can from the race and so for our strategy it was important to save some tyres today. I think there will be a big fight tomorrow with the cars starting around us, but we have one more set of supersofts. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do now.”

P18 Sebastien Buemi Q1: 1:24.070

“The fact I have a five place grid penalty carried over from last Sunday’s race at the Nurburgring conditioned our approach to this afternoon’s qualifying session. We chose not to use any Super Soft tyres today, deciding to save them for tomorrow, which means I have three new sets of them for the race. With high tyre degradation at this track, that will be an important factor and I hope it will allow me to work my way up the order. There is a big difference between tyres that are completely new and those that have done even just a few laps, therefore the key will be to try and overtake cars as soon as possible.”

P19 Heikki Kovalainen Q1: 1:24.362

“After a bit of a tough weekend so far I’m really pleased with how quali finished up. I’ve not been able to find a balance I’m happy with all weekend and we made a couple of changes for qualifying that finally took us in the right direction. On the first run I couldn’t get a clean lap together, but I was quietly optimistic we could hook it all up on the second run and that’s how it ended up. I had to work pretty hard to get it all right and it’s very pleasing to see it come good in the last minutes of Q1. The updates we’ve brought here are working very well for us and it looks like we’ve made a gain relative to the guys ahead, and with Jarno clearly much more competitive here the mood is really good across the whole team.”

P20 Jarno Trulli Q1: 1:24.534

“This has been a very good day, even though in qualifying I didn’t manage to get everything I could out of the car. On the first run we went with the prime and the car was oversteering a little. On the second run we went onto the super softs and found more understeer than I’d had all weekend so I wasn’t really able to find the pace I’d had yesterday and this morning. Despite that I am really pleased with how this weekend’s gone. The new power steering system has transformed the car for me and I’m so much happier now – it’s really like night and day, and I can’t wait to get back in tomorrow and see what we can do in the race. The difference between the two tyre choices means strategy will come into play in a big way, so let’s see what we can do.”

P21 Timo Glock Q1: 1:26.294

“It hasn’t been an easy weekend so far. Yesterday the car was okay, not perfect, but at least we had a good baseline for today. But then unfortunately the wind picked up this morning and it felt like it just blew our car off the track a little bit. It was very difficult this morning as I had no balance and I really had to work around the set-up. We tried a lot of different combinations and I have to say that my engineers did a very good job. As a team we picked the right set-up in the end and I had a very good qualifying lap. I got the best out of the car and collected a lot of data, and now we have to see why the car is more difficult to drive under these conditions. But I’m happy with my work today.”

P22 Vitantonio Liuzzi Q1: 1:26.323

“It was a good qualifying session overall. 22nd place is a good result, especially after having experienced some problems during the weekend. We have been trying some different things on the car and the balance of the car improved. Unfortunately we had an issue on the first lap where we broke the front wing and we had to go all the way to the end like this. But it’s positive to have been competitive with our main rivals, especially after the troubles of the past few days and on a track that doesn’t suit us too well. We would have done better if everything stayed together but now we have to look forward and push for tomorrow’s race”.

P23 Daniel Ricciardo Q1: 1:26.479

“I thought it was not a bad lap at the end, we are quite close to Tonio and Timo, there are only a couple of tenths in it. When you see that the times are so close it is a little bit frustrating to not be one spot ahead. Nevertheless, we can be satisfied because we are competitive although I hoped for a little bit better. Tomorrow is another day. It’s going to be quite difficult given the conditions. Tyre management will be a key factor as well as pit stops. I don’t know what to expect but I’m going to push to the limit and see what happens”.

P24 Jerome d’Ambrosio Q1: 1:26.510

“Not a bad Saturday at all. This morning was really good and I had a good balance with the car, but this afternoon I struggled a little bit as the track was cooler and the balance changed. I had a bit of understeer which made the car slower over a lap but I feel I was quite close to the car’s full potential today. I’m sure I can still improve to make sure I hook everything together over the lap.”