Hamilton claims Pole Position at the Hungaroring, Verstappen P2
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In a new, experimental format, Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole position at the Hungaroring. This was the Briton's 104th career pole position. Max Verstappen will start alongside the seven-time world champion, and Lando Norris completed the Top 3 on Saturday. On the other hand, George Russell got eliminated in Q1 and finished in P18, and Carlos Sainz also failed to make it through to Q3.
After the first set of laps on soft tyres, Max Verstappen set the pace, leading Lewis Hamilton by a small margin. However, the Dutchman could not hold on to first place after his second run, as he did not improve. As a result, Lewis Hamilton won qualifying with a 1:16.609, just 0.003 seconds ahead of the Red Bull driver. Lando Norris also had a chance for a front row start, but finished in P3 ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri.
Guanyu Zhou capped off an excellent Saturday with finishing in P5 ahead of Charles Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso. Sergio Perez made it through to Q3 for the sixth time asking, but only finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in the final session.
Q2
The drivers had to complete Q2 on medium tyres, with Lando Norris getting the fastest lap of the session ahead of Hamilton, after both of them had stressful last minutes in Q1. Verstappen’s first lap was deleted, but the Dutchman had no trouble getting through to Q3, and finished in P3.
In this session, the two Ferraris were on the edge of getting eliminated. Leclerc was sitting in P12 after the checkered flag was waved, but he survived and knocked out Carlos Sainz instead. Daniel Ricciardo finished in P13, and was eliminated with the two Alpines and Lance Stroll.
OUT - P15 Gasly, P14 Stroll, P13 Ricciardo, P12 Ocon, P11 Sainz
Q1
Continuing on from FP3, the Alfa Romeos did well on the hard tyres, and Guanyu Zhou finished first in the session ahead of the two Red Bulls in the order of Verstappen and Perez. The drivers kept on doing more and more laps, and it went down until the last moment to find out who went through.
By the end of the session, with three minutes to go, both Ferraris had to improve, and they did that so. As a result, three British drivers from the front were eventually in trouble with a minute to go. After being the quickest in FP3, Hamilton could survive Q1, Lando Norris did so too, but George Russell had some problem with the traffic and got eliminated.
Alongside Russell, the two Williams, Kevin Magnussen, who had a lap deleted earlier, and Yuki Tsunoda got knocked out. Daniel Ricciardo went through by the smallest of margins, just beating out Alexander Albon for P15.
OUT - P20 Sargeant, P19 Magnussen, P18 Russell, P17 Tsunoda, P16 Albon