Hungarian Grand Prix: Norris takes pole

Cloudy. Dry. Air +24C, highway +29C

Qualifying at the Hungaroring is the most important session of the weekend. Overtaking at the Hungarian circuit is difficult, the starting position and the reliability of the cars in hot weather determine the outcome and there are almost no strategic options, but this time there was intrigue. And who will win the pole, and whether he can convert this advantage into victory.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, rivals approached Red Bull and even took the lead; in response, the championship-winning team brought many new products to the Hungaroring, trying to maintain an advantage, but not all of them worked.

In the first practice Sainz was in the lead, in the second and third it was Norris, and it was completely unclear who would eventually win pole position. Before the start of qualifying there was some rain, but that did not affect the condition of the asphalt.

Last year’s qualifying format in Hungary, where you could only use Hard in the first session, Medium in the second and Soft in the third, is a thing of the past. This time the format was known.

For the sixth time this season, Pirelli brought a ‘soft’ trio of compounds to the podium: C3, C4 and C5, named Hard, Medium and Soft.

In the first session Everyone went to Soft. The track was dry, but it started raining again. On the first attempt Hamilton set the best time, doing a lap in 1:17.087.

Sargent locked up the brakes in the first corner, the car hit the barrier, but Logan kept going – all was restricted by yellow flags. Russell made a mistake on a fast lap and returned to the pits.

In the 12th minute, the red flags appeared. Perez hit the wet kerb at the entrance to turn eight, the car spun and threw him into the wall. A dangerous overload sensor was activated and the driver was sent to a medical centre as a precaution. It is the second accident in a row for Perez in the first part of qualifying after Silverstone.

After the restart, there were almost seven minutes left until the end of the session, in which much had changed. Verstappen repeated Hamilton’s time and Ricciardo moved up to first place with 1:17.050.

Perez, Russell, Zhou, Ocon and Gasly fell out of the further battle.

In the second session everyone went back to Soft. On the first attempt Verstappen showed the best time on a fresh set of soft tyres, but many were on rolled-in tyres, including Piastri, who lost only 15 thousandths. Ricciardo missed the attempt.

At the second attempt Norris was the fastest, two tenths ahead of Verstappen. Hulkenberg, Bottas, Albon, Sargent and Magnussen did not qualify for the final.

In the final, the forecast predicted rain five minutes into the session – and everyone rushed to the track.

Verstappen immediately raised the bar – 1:15.555, but Norris was faster – 1:15.227. After changing tires, the riders set out for a second attempt, but not everyone managed to complete it. Tsunoda crashed his car after dropping out in turn six.

The car was badly damaged; the marshals were busy for a long time to collect the wreckage. In fact, everything was decided, but there were still 2:13 left until the end of the session and the management decided to end the session. Verstappen, Alonso and Sainz did not go – there were no fresh tires and it was going to rain, the rest did not improve.

Lando Norris won qualifying in Hungary to take his second pole position of the season and third of his career. Oscar Piastri showed it for the second time – tomorrow the McLaren team will occupy the entire front row of the grid for the 64th time in history and for the first time since Brazil ’12.

Verstappen and Sainz will start from the second row, Hamilton and Leclerc will start from the third row.

Qualification results