Hungarian GP qualifying: Drama in the rain as Nico Rosberg edges out Lewis Hamilton

After a 20-minute delay due to torrential rain, Q1 finally got under way, with plenty of standing water on the track. The drivers were warned as they went out there that another heavy downpour was imminent - so they should get a quick lap on the board as soon as possible. Williams were the smartest, getting both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas on the track first off.

Visibility was absolutely dire as the rain began to fall again, with Force India's Sergio Perez on the top of the leaderboard; "There's too much water for these tyres," complained Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, and indeed the red flag was waved at that point, with just over 13 minutes still to run.

Ten minutes or so later, there was less precipitation, so they tried once more, with the Mercedes cars - both in the provisional drop zone - keen to get going swiftly.

Then the red flag went up once more as Marcus Ericsson went flying into the tyre barriers at Turn 10 in his Sauber, finding himself stuck under some advertising hoardings. He walked away unscathed, but passed judgement on his car thus: "No. It's over."

Lewis Hamilton locked up and veered off through the gravel once they began again; and then as Felipe Massa headed off on to the grass and into a barrier, the red flag went up once more. Yes, seriously. It was a toss-up as to who was more frustrated and losing patience - the fans or the drivers.

Or maybe the media pack.

Guess what happened next? Rio Haryanto flew into the wall at Turn 10, and the red flags were out once more, with a minute to go. That meant the END OF Q1, eliciting many expletives from Jolyon Palmer, the last man to fall into the drop zone, ruing the loss of his chance to improve his placing.

After a Q1 that lasted an hour and a quarter, Q2 ran surprisingly smoothly as the sun began to dry the track out. It meant intriguing conditions for the drivers to negotiate, with quick thinking from the teams to adapt their tyre usage accordingly. Bottas was the first to move to super-softs, and recorded the quickest lap before being overtaken by McLaren's Fernando Alonso and then Perez.

As the clock ticked down, the pack pushed hard. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, once leading the rankings, was knocked out as those behind him chased his time and he didn't have chance to hit back. Hamilton, meanwhile, seemed to be struggling with keeping to the track limits yet again, but pulled it back in the middle sectors to save himself.

With some standing water still on the track, there were some risks out there - Sebastian Vettel skidded his Ferrari off the final turn with five minutes to go. The Mercedes pair looked solid to the end - but Hamilton was distracted in the final lap as Alonso spun off, bringing out the yellow flags. That left Nico Rosberg with the opportunity to take pole - which he duly did.

Wet and treacherous. And then normal service was resumed, with another Mercedes front-row lock-out.

As the top three headed out for their photo opportunity, Rosberg had his arm round third-placed Daniel Ricciardo, and conspicuously ignored Hamilton.

Raikkonen's early exit was a big surprise. The TV coverage opted not to air any of the radio messages from the driver to the Ferrari team. Probably just as well.

Daniel Ricciardo was a touch disappointing in qualifying but there is plenty of pace in that Red Bull that he might be able to draw out, particularly in the fine weather forecast for tomorrow.

Hamilton - Rosberg - Ricciardo