• McLaren driver proves untouchable in Hungary
• Romain Grosjean to start second, with Sebastian Vettel third

Lewis Hamilton was untouchable at the Hungaroring on Saturday, leading every session of qualifying and producing two dominant runs during the final run to take pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix. It is his third pole this year but the first since the second race of the season in Malaysia and confirms that, at least in the hands of Hamilton, the McLaren has the pace again to challenge at the front.

Hamilton, who has won in Hungary twice before and has also scored two poles here in 2007 and 2008 – the former converted to a win – was pleased with the result. “I’m really happy with what the guys have done,” he said. “This is a good boost for the team, we need to keep our cool.”

He finished four-tenths of a second ahead of the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, who will start from the front row on Sunday for the first time in his career after his sharp final lap pipped Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull into third. Jenson Button, who reported difficulties with understeer on his McLaren, was fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen in the other Lotus was fifth, the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were sixth and seventh, followed by the Williams of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna, with Nico Hülkenberg of Force India rounding out the top 10.

Hamilton went wide through turn eight on his first quick lap in the final session. He backed off and then set the fastest time of the first runs but had used fewer of the soft (option) tyres than his rivals in Q1 and Q2. On another set of fresh softs, he bettered it with his second outing and still could not be touched. By the end it was clear that both his times had been good enough to hold pole.

During the first session initial runs on the medium (prime) tyre were quickly supplanted when the leaders began putting in much quicker times on the softs. The track too, was becoming faster as it rubbered in and it was Hamilton who managed to top the time sheets but crucially without using a set of his soft tyres. He was followed by Force India’s Paul Di Resta and Button but the latter was already reporting he had understeer from early on in Q1. Daniel Ricciardo’s Toro Rosso joined the cars of Caterham, HRT and Marussia to be dropped on the first outing.

Having shifted to the softs, Hamilton went on to light up the second session finishing at the front again after a lap in which he felt he could have been even quicker but for being held up by a Sauber. At that point Hamilton was six tenths clear of nearest rival Raikkonen. Fastest in the first and last sectors he did not have to take a second run, saving another set of softs for Q3 and ultimately finishing clear of Vettel in second.

Q2 also saw Senna make it into the final run for the first time this season with a very tidy run, knocking out Mark Webber, who was struggling for grip, and finishing just behind his Williams team-mate, Maldonado.

The Mercedes of Michael Schmacher and Nico Rosberg also failed to make it into the shootout. Both seem to have struggled for pace all weekend and were running heavy fuel runs, perhaps anticipating a poor qualifying and an alternate race strategy on Sunday, where they will start firmly in the midfield, from 17th and 13th respectively.

Sunday’s race is key to McLaren’s constructors’ title hopes as they aim to bridge the development gap to Red Bull and Ferrari

McLaren face two huge race weekends that begin in earnest at qualifying on Saturday in Germany and will end a week on Sunday after the Hungarian Grand Prix that marks the mid-point of the season and the start of the summer break. Fourth in the constructors’ championship after a strong start to the season, the team have made uncharacteristic mistakes and struggled with Jenson Button’s difficulties, from optimising the car to tyre performance.

What is key for these races in such a closely fought season is motor sport’s basic goal – a quick car. If the upgrade packages the team have brought here do not deliver, the challenge may be insurmountable.

After a poor start to 2011 McLaren were confident they could challenge for the title this year, given a strong opening. They could not have asked for better. The car was quick in winter testing, Button went on to win the first race in Australia and of the six podium places available to him and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the first three races, they missed out on only one.

Yet their chance to reap the benefits was hampered by small but often crucial errors within the team.

A fuelling mistake in qualifying in Spain and pit crew errors cost them dear, and after Hamilton’s brilliant win in Canada, Ferrari and Red Bull arrived with their upgrades and suddenly McLaren looked as if they were standing still.

Hamilton, who celebrates racing in his 100th grand prix this weekend, admitted the problems had set back their challenge, noting in May that “we definitely haven’t exploited the car as much as we should have”. But when the team was roundly outperformed at Silverstone with both drivers around 1.5 seconds off Kimi Raikkonen’s fastest lap time, it was clear that out-and-out race pace was the issue. With the teams so close and competitive, car development will be absolutely key to winning the championship this year, a constant battle around the racing to eke out tiny advantages. Consequently after the British Grand Prix the team held what was widely referred to as a “crisis” meeting, but which they insist was a pre-planned technical review.

What was key was that both the team and the drivers acknowledged that they needed to up their game, since they were now lagging 74 points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship. Which is what makes this race and the improvements they have brought here so critical.

“They’ve been putting the upgrades on and we haven’t,” admitted Button. “But we haven’t gone backwards, we’re still moving forwards, just not at the rate of knots that those guys are. It is very difficult to find improvements with the limited regulations these days but they’ve been able to do it and we haven’t – but I would say that we have now.”

Hamilton, too, was heedful that seeing an improvement from the upgrades in these final outings before the summer break was vital. “These next two races are important ones for us as a team,” he said. “We are fully aware we have underperformed as a team these last two races. We’re under no illusions that we have a hell of a lot of work to do. Hopefully with these upgrades we can improve our race pace and it will give us a shot at getting back in the championship.”

At the sharp end of implementing these potentially season-changing developments is the McLaren sporting director, Sam Michael. “It’s going to be like this all year – going up and down for everybody. It’s a result of the grid being very tight, it means there’s much more emphasis on development rate through the season,” he said. The developments here include new sidepods, brake ducts and internal mechanical updates. They are part of McLaren’s planned programme and not spurred by the Silverstone disappointment, insist the team – “there’s really no such thing as parts that you leave on the shelf or don’t bring as quickly as you physically can,” says Michael. Which raises the question of where they might be had the improvements not gone on the car until after Hungary.

A moot point but one that will not be lost on the team, since Red Bull and Ferrari have been quicker off the start in the development race. McLaren have to match them here and go one better. With Button and Hamilton fastest in the dry in Friday’s practice they look like they might just be able to do so. Michael is like a prize fighter who knows how high the stakes are and how low the margin for error is. “We come here to win and we expect to be fighting for pole position here and winning the grand prix,” he said ahead of qualifying.

Get the lowdown on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit. Listen to Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen explain how to get the best out of the car on a track of long, fast straights and tight, slow corners. Hover your mouse over each turn to find out the speed and gear in which the drivers take the corners

• Takuma Sato crashes on final lap of record-breaking race
• Scot Franchitti wore sunglasses in honour of Dan Wheldon

Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 for the third time on Sunday after the Japanese driver Takuma Sato crashed on the final lap.

Sato went for the lead going into the first turn, pulling even with Franchitti. But he went in too low, and the crash sent him into the outside wall. Sato’s car barely missed Franchitti, who coasted across the line under a yellow caution flag to become the 10th driver to win at least three Indy 500s.

The Scot’s team-mate, Scott Dixon, finished second. Tony Kanaan, who had the lead off the last restart with six laps to go, settled for third on a blistering day. The official race temperature was 91F (32C), one degree shy of the record set in 1937.

In the winner’s circle, Franchitti donned a pair of white sunglasses to honour Dan Wheldon, who won the 500 a year ago but was killed in a crash at Las Vegas in the final race of the 2011 season. The crowd of more than 200,000 also donned white glasses on the 98th lap – matching the number of Wheldon’s winning car.

“I want to thank all the fans for saluting our Dan today,” said Franchitti, who was one of Wheldon’s closest friends. “What a race.”

This was the second year in a row that a crash on the final lap affected the outcome. In 2011, rookie JR Hildebrand was leading going into the final turn when his car slammed into the wall, allowing Wheldon to cruise past and take the checkered flag.

“I was side by side with Takuma,” Franchitti said. “We hit and I managed to keep it out of trouble.”

Marco Andretti had the strongest car early in the race, dropping back because of handling issues. He was fighting his way back to the front when he crashed with 13 laps to go. That set up a six-lap shootout for the win.

Kanaan was ahead when the green flag waved, but the two Ganassi cars quickly flew by him for the lead. In all, there were a record 35 lead changes, six more than the previous high set in 1960.

• Hamilton finishes fifth and Jenson Button spins out
• ‘I don’t know what my team was up to,’ fumes Hamilton

McLaren, whose season has been stuck in reverse gear since their opening win in Australia two months ago, had another wretched day on Sunday when Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button ended the Monaco Grand Prix in frustration.

Button spent 70 laps stuck behind Heikki Kovalainen and when he did attempt to overtake, injudiciously, he collided with the Caterham car and span out of the race. Hamilton finished fifth and lost out to both Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel when Ferrari and Red Bull produced faster pit stops.

A dejected-looking Hamilton said: “I really dislike going backwards. My start was one of the worst in a long time. I don’t know what my team was up to there. I just don’t understand why it happens when the two guys next to me and two behind get perfect ones. I was very fortunate not to get caught up in a crash. It’s quite an easy thing we do, we do thousands and thousands of practices, it should not be a problem. In the pit stop I lost quite a lot of time, not able to keep up with Alonso and then Seb got me through his pit stop. We haven’t had a grand prix weekend where something hasn’t gone wrong.”

To make matters worse, Hamilton was distracted by debris falling on to his helmet from the pit-lane area. “When they put the sign board out in the pit area, the slips that go in there that show what lap you are, they kept falling out,” Hamilton said. “A couple of them hit me in the front of the helmet. I thought ‘this is getting ridiculous’.”

Hamilton also complained about a lack of communication with his team, and was particularly annoyed to lose out to Vettel as he came out of the pits. He said: “I wasn’t really informed. I didn’t have the information to say Sebastian was going to get me. I could easily have pushed. Those are communication things which you work on. I just have to ask them next time to give me more info.

“I’m driving as well as I’ve ever driven. I’m not making mistakes at all and it feels great. I can feel comfortable now leaving the track and knowing that I couldn’t have done any more. It’s just unfortunate the car wasn’t quick enough. But we are a great team and we will meet next week and see where we can improve the car.”

Button, whose season has gone into serious decline since that win in Melbourne, said: “It’s my leanest period since the old Honda days but shit happens. It has got to clear up and then we can move on. We still think every time we do a race that we are still learning. We tried to go longer [on the tyres] because we thought the rain would come. We had to take a gamble. My pit stop wasn’t surprisingly slow.

“I am just happy the consistency is back. The pit stop might not be as good as Ferrari but we are not making mistakes. We have some way to go in terms of time but we are getting there.”

The one consolation for McLaren is that with different winners in every race no one is getting away at the top of the drivers’ championship table.

But there are worrying signs that Ferrari and Red Bull are beginning to muster the sort of consistency that has been so elusive for the Woking-based team.

The team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, said: “Cars are never quick enough and stops are never short enough, in my experience. Jenson is struggling a little bit with tyre energy. We were trying to get the tyres to run as long as we could as we were waiting for rain.

“When we could not get the tyres to go any longer we had to stop and Fernando [Alonso] went very quickly and got in front which was frustrating but it was nothing to do with the stop but to do with Fernando’s pace.

“You’re never satisfied but I think Lewis is scoring points at every race. He’s keeping his head and doing a very good job. It’s anyone’s to play for. We and Lewis and Jenson can win this year’s championship.”

• McLaren driver rails against unpredictable season
• Results have slipped since opening win in Australia

Jenson Button fears that Formula One fans will soon tire of a season that is as unpredictable as the roulette at Monaco’s trackside casino. With five winners in five races, including Pastor Maldonado, who was a 500-1 outsider days before he won the last race in Barcelona, some insiders have been congratulating themselves for spicing up the sport.

But a number of drivers have been critical of a season when getting on the podium seems to be as arbitrary as throwing the drivers’ numbers into the air before seeing which lands on top, and Button, on the eve of the grand prix around the streets of his home town, has joined the debate.

“The fans love the fact it is exciting but I think it will get to a point where they will wonder who they are supporting and why someone is winning and someone is losing. How can everyone be a loser and everyone be a winner? Hopefully it will get to a point where we all understand what is going on.”

Last year the introduction of Pirelli’s highly degradable tyres was the biggest factor in F1 becoming a more attractive spectacle, way ahead of the energy-storing KERS and the overtaking aid, DRS. The teams and their drivers eventually came to terms with their tyres last season but that has not been the case this year, with the new generation of generally softer rubber, with temperatures difficult to control.

Button, whose results have fallen away since winning the opening race in Australia two months ago, believes this failure is the main reason behind the unpredictability of the racing. “No one in the pit lane understands the tyres,” he says. “There are geniuses, supposedly, in the sport but none of us understands how Pastor qualifies in 13th and 21st position and then qualifies for the front row in the next one.

“Why is it so up and down? Last year we talked a lot about tyres but not like this year. Last year we understood the tyres and understood what we had to do to make them work through a race. But this year we still don’t know. It does worry me a little bit. I haven’t been able to look after the tyres, so it has been very weird.

“When you engineer the car and you change something it should do something in that direction but it doesn’t. So you try the opposite and sometimes it works. It is very strange and it is all because you cannot get the tyres in the right working range. When you do it’s amazing and the car works great.”

The situation is particularly perturbing for Button because there is a precision and elegance about his driving style and he is considered to be one of the most skilful conservers of rubber. He believes the problem will be overcome – “we have got such clever people here that it must happen” – but he is also concerned that McLaren’s competitors might find the key first. “There is that worry. We have just got to keep trying to find it. Everyone is in the same position so we have got to hope that we are cleverer than the rest.”

Button, who surprised many when he outperformed his McLaren team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, last year, has struggled since his opening victory in Melbourne, finishing 14th in Malaysia, second in China, retired in Bahrain and ninth in Spain. “Melbourne was the perfect weekend. The next weekend was again looking very good but I made a mistake. And then in China again we had a very good chance of victory but someone else [the man on the rear left wheel] made a mistake.

“The last two races have been unusually poor. Qualifying wasn’t bad in Bahrain but the race pace wasn’t good. And in the last race qualifying was terrible and also the race pace wasn’t good.

“It’s quite unusual for me, with McLaren, to have bad pace in the race, to not be consistent. We have changed a few things on the car for here.”

The novelist Somerset Maugham described Monaco as a sunny place for shady people but on Friday, as the rain tumbled, it was a shady place for sunny people. Even the unusually bad weather could not dampen Button’s enthusiasm for the place; he has returned to live here after a spell in Guernsey.

“I moved back in February back because I can train every day outdoors. Last week I was out five days on the bike. I cycle all the time with Paul di Resta and David Coulthard. And I go with some pro cyclists. It makes a massive difference to me because otherwise I get fed up.”

Button, who was fastest in Thursday’s practice ahead of qualifying on Saturday, also has fond memories of the street circuit where he won in his world championship season of 2009. “It’s pretty crazy driving a Formula One car here, a 750 horsepower monster that we tame round the streets of Monaco.

“We all know it’s difficult to overtake but there have been some amazing overtaking manoeuvres. We also know how difficult it is to race here. It feels that the circuit is getting narrower and narrower every lap you do.

“You get mentally drained. But when you win here it means so much. It’s a massive celebration, whoever wins. The horns are blowing, the boats go crazy, the grandstands and people on the balconies join in with one big celebration of Formula One.”

Murray Walker once memorably said: “There are seven winners of the Monaco Grand Prix on the starting line today and four of them are Michael Schumacher.” On Sunday there will be six former winners on the grid. But there are more than a dozen who could easily finish on top of the podium.

• Controlled explosion carried out on suspect package
• Police seal off area before package was blown up

A bomb disposal expert was called in on Thursday to undertake a controlled explosion of a suspect package in the paddock for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

A small white plastic box was found discarded outside the entrance to the media centre, the Salle d’Exposition near La Rascasse.

Local police initially closed off the entrance to the media centre at around 9.45pm local time, forcing journalists leaving to exit through a back door.

The area was then sealed off to allow the bomb disposal expert to check the package over before he eventually declared it suspect.

A small crowd that had gathered, including a handful of journalists and photographers, were pushed back to a distance of around 50 yards in between the motorhomes belonging to the Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA.

As the expert prepared to detonate, the group was asked to retreat a further 20 yards near the entrance of the McLaren motorhome.

Finally, after 20 minutes working on the package and wiring it up, it was eventually exploded, creating a considerable noise and leaving shards of white plastic strewn across the floor.

It is the second time in successive years that a bomb disposal unit has been summoned to the paddock ahead of the Monaco race.

• Kovalainen’s engine fills Monaco tunnel with white smoke
• Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso fastest ahead of congested field

Heikki Kovalainen brought the curtain down early on the opening practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix in spectacular fashion.

With nine minutes remaining of the hour-and-a-half session around the streets of the principality, the Renault engine in the Finn’s Caterham decided to give way.

Worse still it did so as Kovalainen hurtled through the tunnel, filling the space under the Fairmont hotel with clouds of white smoke.

Kovalainen finally came to a halt on the short straight emerging out of the tunnel down to the port chicane, forcing an immediate red flag.

Given the poor visibility in the tunnel, it was soon decided to call a halt on the session at the end of which Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari emerged at the head of another congested field.

Alonso, joint leader in the standings alongside the reigning champion Sebastian Vettel, finished with a lap of one minute 16.263 seconds.

Given the time there is plenty of margin for improvement bearing in mind Vettel’s pole lap from last year was 2.7sec quicker.

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean led the way for most and at various stages of the session, but was forced to settle for second best behind Alonso, finishing 0.365sec adrift.

On a contrasting morning for Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen endured frustration as a steering issue confined him to the garage for all but one installation lap, leaving him without a time.

Sauber’s Sergio Pérez, back on track here a year after suffering a frightening accident that left him in hospital for two days and forced him out of two races, was third overall.

The Mexican, along with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton – now a Monaco resident – and the race winner last time out in Spain, Pastor Maldonado in his Williams, all finished just under half a second down, with the trio covered by 0.049.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, with the pressure on him this weekend to perform, finished reasonably close to his team-mate Alonso for once, the Brazilian sixth on the timesheet, 0.578 off the pace.

Kamui Kobayashi was next up in the second Sauber, followed by McLaren’s Jenson Button, Vettel in his Red Bull and Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg to round out the top 10, all covered by one second.

The seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, who will serve a five-place grid penalty on Sunday for running into the back of Bruno Senna in his Williams in Spain, was 1.148 down in 11th.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber, winner here two years ago, was 13th, with Force India’s Paul di Resta 16th, two seconds down, and notably 0.7 off his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg who was 12th.

• Role of Mercedes in Formula One has yet to be determined
• Brawn: ‘We are very proud of our history and our heritage’

Ross Brawn claims Mercedes remain locked in “delicate discussions” with regard to their future role in Formula One.

With the sport gearing up for an initial public offering on the Singapore stock exchange expected to yield around £2billion, the role of Mercedes has yet to be determined.

Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull have broadly agreed to the terms of a new Concorde Agreement with the F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, and are all guaranteed seats on a new board that will come with a float.

Mercedes, however, have so far been marginalised, not only with regard to the new Concorde Agreement – the commercial pact that binds the teams, the FIA and rights holders CVC Capital Partners – but also as they have no place on the board.

Ecclestone’s argument is although Mercedes have been an engine supplier since 1984, the current campaign is only their third as a fully-fledged team in their own right since 1955 and as such do not deserve the same rights as others.

Brawn, the Mercedes team principal, said: “We are very proud of our history and our heritage and we feel its important to the sport.

“People have different opinions on that. But it’s all part of the delicate discussions that are going on. It is still I’m afraid something we can’t comment on. So I can’t really add anything to what we’ve said previously.”

Earlier this week the sport geared up for the flotation when CVC Capital Partners, F1′s majority shareholders, sold 21.3% of the business to three investment funds worth a combined £1bn.

The US company Waddell&Reed paid £630m for a 13.9% stake, while the US money manager BlackRock and Norges, the investment division of Norway’s central bank, together paid £382m to get a combined stake of 7.4%.

With Ecclestone confirming the IPO is due to take place before the end of June, Brawn feels it is not so cut and dried and that the FIA has a key role to play.

Brawn added: “We’ve got a long way to go before we arrive at the final solutions. What has to be factored into all of this is the role the FIA play in the future and how they are involved in the sport.

“They have been quite quiet so far, but they will have an involvement in the sport and I’m reasonably confident that we’ll find sensible solutions in the future. I don’t think things are closed yet. The sport can only survive if it has the lifeblood.

“Whatever we’ve had so far, which has perhaps not been the perfect solution, has been enough to sustain and maintain Formula One in reasonable shape.

“It could always be better, it could always be a lot worse. Whatever the weaknesses of what we’ve had so far, it’s worked. I think there will need to be solutions found that make it work and I think we’ve still got quite a long way to go.

“It might go on longer but I think in the next few months it will become clear what the shape of Formula One is in the future.”