DPA
Budapest
McLaren’s Lando Norris took his third career pole position on Saturday for the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix and laid down a marker to standings leader Max Verstappen.
Norris is the double world champion’s nearest rival, 84 points adrift, and will hope to slash the gap in Sunday’s race.
His team mate Oscar Piastri of Australia was second quickest at +0.022, meaning a first McLaren front row since Brazil 2012 and only their third in Hungary in F1 history, with Verstappen having to settle for third on Sunday’s grid.
Rain drops in Budapest changed the dynamic after Norris had topped the timesheets in sunny final practice earlier on Saturday.
But the Briton, who won in Miami this year, set 1 minute 15.227 seconds in Hungaroring qualifying for his second pole of the season as McLaren continued their huge leap in performance this year.
“If I don’t [win] then it’s not been a good day... it’s obvious what the aim is for tomorrow,” said Norris, second in Budapest last year behind Verstappen.
“We are in the best position for whatever the conditions throw at us, I’m looking forward to it. Two cars on the front row, we can control it from there so as long as we stay where we are, we will be happy.” Verstappen’s Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez spun into the wall in Q1, prompting a red flag. He therefore qualified down in 16th as a miserable season dragged on for the Mexican, who is poised to leave the team next year or even sooner.
Mercedes driver George Russell, who took pole in Britain last time out, got caught up in the fall-out and ended up 17th after a mix-up over fuel levels.
Traffic in the pits caused more problems for drivers in Q2 as teams again got their timings wrong, with Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg in 11th among those caught out.
“We’re getting done here. This is taking too long,” he said.
A heavy crash for Yuki Tsunoda in Q3 suspended the session with just 2.13 minutes left, meaning Verstappen opted not to go out again with rain in the air despite having upgrades on his Red Bull.
The Dutchman has gone two races without a win after Mercedes duo Russell and Lewis Hamilton won in Austria and Britain respectively.
Verstappen said: “I tried, the whole weekend we have been a little bit behind, and I think that was also the case in qualifying. I tried to make it as close as possible but unfortunately just not enough.”
