Sebastian Vettel took another pole but it wasn't by a huge margin. At the end of the session Hamilton, Button, Massa and Alonso were behind the German.

At the start of qualifying temperatures were about the same as this morning's practice session. The first on track were the HRT's. Daniel Ricciardo and Vitantonio Liuzzi were aiming to beat the Virgins. They succeeded as they both out qualified the Virgin of Jerome d'Ambrosio. It wasn't enough to make it into Q2 though. Kovalainen, Trulli and Glock also didn't make it into the second part of qualifying. Sebastien Buemi was the unlucky driver who joined the back markers. On the front it was Fernando Alonso who took the lead. The Spaniard drove a 1:21.578. Lewis Hamilton was second and was the only driver to a single run.

For the second session most drivers fitted the red super soft tyres. Lewis Hamilton decided that he would start the session with the yellow softs to see where he would end up. On the front it was Fernando Alonso who took the lead. He improved his time to a 1:20.262 and was in front of Button with 0.3 seconds. Webber and Vettel, both also using the red super soft tyres, were almost 0.8 second behind the Spaniard. A bit further back the Mercedes GP drivers, Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez made it into the top ten. Their teammates, Jaime Alguersuari, the Williams and Renaults failed to set a time good enough for Q3.

Q3 was set up to be a huge battle between Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton. The first to set a time was Fernando Alonso he drove the Hungaroring lap in 1:20.365. In his first lap Lewis Hamilton was four tenths faster. He managed to do it in 1:19.978. Sebastian Vettel managed to split them and was just behind Hamilton. In the final minute all three were working hard to get the most out of their cars. Sebastian Vettel was able to set an amazing lap. He was the only one beating his own time and grabbed the pole. He drove a 1:19.815. Behind him were Hamilton and Alonso. In the last seconds Jenson Button and Felipe Massa managed to come between Hamilton and Alonso and demoted Alonso to the third row on the grid.