F1 2018 live stream: Hungarian Grand Prix time, TV schedule, and how to watch online
Lewis Hamilton has pole position after a crazy qualifying session on Saturday.
Heavy rain turned the qualifying session for the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix into one of the most exciting and unpredictable of the season. Lewis Hamilton has pole position and he has his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, next to him on the front row despite the Ferrari cars seemingly being favored going into the weekend.
Sunday’s race is set to begin at 9 a.m. ET in the United States, and will be broadcast on ESPN. Live online streaming of the race can be had via WatchESPN, the ESPN App or F1 TV Pro.
Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel are locked in a battle at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. Vettel did not finish the last race, and now trails Hamilton by 17 points. Vettel will start fourth on the grid, behind tammate Kimi Raikkonen, who had provisional pole throughout the third qualifying session, but lost out at the last second to both Mercedes drivers.
Many felt that Ferrari and Red Bull would have the edge at the Hungaroring, but the wet conditions really mixed things up. Hamilton, for what it’s worth, doesn’t think Mercedes “needs” a wet race to win on Sunday.
“I don’t think we need the rain tomorrow,” Hamilton said. “Hopefully we don’t need the rain.”
The not-quite-as-big-but-still-very-big story is the relative lack of performance from the Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen made it into the third qualifying session, but despite generally being considered one of the best wet-weather racers, he qualified seventh fastest on the wet tires, behind Carlos Sainz Jr. of Renault and Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso.
“The car was just not having a lot of grip,” Verstappen said. “Especially on the [wet] tires we were really struggling. But even on the intermediates it was not fantastic. I don’t know why [I was 2.3 seconds back of Hamilton] otherwise we would have changed it.
The car felt weak at all stages of cornering. Just sliding around, no grip, locking. Mid-corner: no grip, no traction. Like driving on eggs.”
Ricciardo will start 12th, barely making it out of the first session and being caught out by the rain and timing in the second. He had to abort a lap due to yellow flags caused by a Lance Stroll spinout.
Brendon Hartley of Toro Rosso and the Haas drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, round out the top 10 of the grid.
Below is all you need to know to watch the race on Sunday.
How to watch the 2018 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix
Date: Sunday, July 29
Location: Hungaroring, Budapest
Time: 9 a.m. ET
TV: ESPN2
Online Streaming: WatchESPN, ESPN App, F1 TV Pro