DPA
Berlin
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes drove a fantastic final flying lap to snatch pole position for the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix from champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull on Saturday The British driver clocked a fastest time of 1 minute 16.609 seconds, narrowly beating Verstappen by 0.003. Lando Norris of McLaren was also close to taking pole, but finished third, 0.085 second behind Hamilton.
This is Hamilton’s first pole position in almost two years. The last time he was the first car on the grid was at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021.
“The team have worked so hard, we’ve been pushing so hard to get this pole. I didn’t expect to be fighting for pole, that last run I gave it everything,” Hamilton said.
Mercedes are now only the third different team to take pole position this year amid a dominating season for Red Bull, who had nine poles so far. Ferrari, meanwhile, had one.
But while Hamilton celebrated a great result, his team-mate George Russell was out in Q1 and will start the race in 18th.
Verstappen set the fastest time with his first flying lap in Q3, but didn’t manage to improve his time with his second effort. He was lucky to avoid a threat from Norris, but could only watch as Hamilton beat his time.
“I’ve been struggling the whole weekend to find a good balance, I had a really difficult Q1, Q2 to attack the corners. We are still second but I think we should be ahead with the car we have, but this weekend we haven’t been on it,” the Dutchman said.
Norris, meanwhile, said he was “disappointed,” because “if you are doing within a tenth of pole, it feels like you could be on pole if you put the lap together. As a driver I’m not the happiest, I made too many mistakes.”
But he and his McLaren team have plenty to celebrate with another good qualifying result after Norris started and finished second at the British Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Rookie Oscar Piastri in the other McLaren was right behind his team-mate in fourth, while Alfa Romeo also had a strong result with Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas in fifth and seventh respectively.
Ferrari had Charles Leclerc in sixth, but Carlos Sainz was only 11th.
Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin, Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull and Nico Hülkenberg of Haas completed the top 10.
It was yet another disappointing session for Perez, who started the weekend with a crash in the first practice on Friday. In Hungary, however, he managed to reach Q3, which he failed to do in the last five races.
Daniel Ricciardo continued his acclimatization to Alpha Tauri upon replacing Nyck de Vries, clocking the 13th fastest time, four spots ahead of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
The Hungarian Grand Prix, which will remain in the F1 calendar until 2032, will take place on Sunday. Verstappen tops the drivers’ championship, 99 points ahead of team-mate Perez.
