Nico Rosberg 'all over the place' in Hungarian GP qualifying

Hamilton defeated Rosberg by half a second to take his fifth Hungarian GP pole, and Rosberg admitted afterwards he could not explain his performance.

"Qualifying went to plan, I just didn't find the pace," said Rosberg.

"It has been up and down all weekend for some unexplained reason.

"It was a bit all over the place in qualifying. I just wasn't happy and I don't understand it.

"It was a bit inconsistent, it's difficult to explain. I don't know."

Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe said Rosberg was held back on Friday by a set-up error on his car.

"A couple of mistakes on Nico's final run meant that he lost a fair chunk of time," said Lowe.

"However, we must apologise to him as we only discovered last night that there had been a configuration error on his car throughout Friday, which hasn't given him an easy ride thus far."

Rosberg added his car balance is "for the race", while polesitter Hamilton feels he is having one of his best F1 weekends.

"In terms of how this weekend has gone so far, I'm incredibly happy," said the reigning world champion.

"So far, it is one of the best I've had. I can't remember having a performance like this.

"Since I have been coming here [Hungary], I have always had good experiences.

"It's not done on a Saturday, and there is lots of work to do tomorrow.

"It's a long way to Turn 1 [after the start], and the race is incredibly tough technically and physically.

"But I feel confident in the team and the car and I hope we can convert it tomorrow."