Red-letter weekend for Lewis Hamilton

If all goes according to plan for Lewis Hamilton in Hungary this weekend, the Mercedes driver will equal one of Michael Schumacher's records and head into Formula1's summer break as the sole leader of the championship series.

Hamilton remains a long way off Schumacher's record 91 race wins but Saturday's qualifier at the Hungaroring could lead to his equalling the great German's 68 pole positions.

A 58th career win for the Briton - it would be his sixth at the circuit outside Budapest - on Sunday would send the triple world champion on vacation with at least a six-point advantage over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Four-times champion Vettel has led since winning the Australian season-opener in March, jointly with Hamilton after China, but the German arrives in Hungary only a point clear after 10 of 20 races.

Hamilton, beaten by now-retired teammate Nico Rosberg to the 2016 title, but the winner in Hungary, has not led the championship on his own since September but has the momentum after a crushing home victory at Silverstone.

"There's lots more things that can come up but I think the team's really energised," he said after winning from a career 67th pole position, adding that Mercedes had "absorbed all the energy" from the fans at Silverstone.

"So I hope we can take that into the next races."

Mercedes are 55 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' standings but team boss Toto Wolff was wary of suggesting that the champions were the favourites again instead of being the underdogs, as he had described them after Monaco.

"The moment you say that, you go to the next race and are slapped in the face," the Austrian told reporters.

"It's tricky. Our car is not always easy to set up but we have become much better at it in a great team effort.

"But I'd like to see Budapest and how the car works on a low-speed, high-temperature track, and then maybe we will have a more complete picture."