The seven-time world champion is back on pole! Lewis Hamilton denied his old title rival Max Verstappen by just 0.003 seconds to take P1 for the Hungarian Grand Prix in a exciting and tight qualifying session.
The Mercedes star was the last driver to cross the start/finish line in Q3 at the Hungaroring and overturned Verstappen’s lap to claim his first pole of the 2023 season.
The qualifying format was tweaked as part of an ‘alternative tyre allocation’ trial, where only hard tyres could be used in Q1, medium tyres in Q2, and softs in Q3, which yielded a competitive qualifying session.
Lando Norris broke into the one minute, 16 seconds with his opening gambit, one minute, 16.904 seconds to sit atop the order, but the McLaren driver had his hopes dashed when Verstappen set one minute, 16.612 seconds.
Hamilton then separated the pair that had locked out the front row at Silverstone with a one minute, 16.738 seconds, showcasing the potential that Mercedes had shown potential over the course of the weekend.
When it came to the second and final series of runs, Verstappen’s first sector had been less impressive than his first. Despite improvement in the second part of the lap, he fell short of his earlier time and left him vulnerable to an attack from the drivers behind.
Norris got close, just falling short after setting a one minute, 16.694 seconds, but Hamilton was up on Verstappen’s delta by the close of the second sector. Although the Mercedes appeared to step out of line in the final couple of corners, the seven-time champion held on to claim the first pole since 2021.
The McLarens locked out the second row as Oscar Piastri set the best middle sector of the session, as Zhou Guanyu was another driver to star in qualifying as the Alfa Romeo driver put his car onto fifth on Sunday’s race grid.
Charles Leclerc was sixth fastest ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who was just over half a tenth away from his Alfa Romeo teammate, as Fernando Alonso was just 0.001 seconds behind to take eighth.
Sergio Perez claimed ninth on the grid having broken a streak of five races without a Q3 appearance, as Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten having once again dragged his Haas into the pole position shootout.
Carlos Sainz was dumped out of the second part of qualifying by Ferrari team-mate Leclerc at the death of the session, as Carlos trailed Fernando by a scant 0.002 seconds.
Verstappen suffered a scare when his initial Q2 table-topping effort was deleted for surpassing track limits at Turn 5, which strong-armed him into going for a second effort on a new set of the mandated medium tyre.
He broke into the top ten with apparent ease despite taking margin with the white lines, dumping Esteban Ocon into the bottom five to set up a thrilling battle to get into the final part of qualifying.
Bottas demonstrated the pace of the Alfa Romeo and rocketed up to fourth to secure safety, precipitating the duel between the Ferraris to break through.
Sainz was the one to miss out when Leclerc crept through to the final part of qualifying, but was over a tenth clear of Ocon – who lines up P12 for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Daniel Ricciardo grabbed 13th for his return after replacing Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri, as Lance Stroll was promoted to P14 after Pierre Gasly’s final lap was deleted for track limits. The final times all fell within a second of each other.
George Russell was the biggest scalp in a wild Q1 session having been unable to better his time in the dying stages of the session, as Zhou Guanyu headed the order on the hard tyres.
Russell was heard complaining about the high levels of traffic ahead of his final lap, and the Mercedes driver was overtaken by Lando Norris, Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly ahead of the final corner as they jostled for track position. This left Russell on the back foot, and crossed the line stranded in P18.
Alex Albon had seemingly made good his escape from the drop zone, but fell down the order as Ricciardo burst through to outqualify Yuki Tsunoda at the first attempt. Albon was less than 0.8 seconds short of Zhou’s benchmark, with Tsunoda just 0.002 seconds shy of the Williams driver.
Russell qualified ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant, the latter losing a lap due to track limits at the top of the session and then rattled across the Turn 6/7 chicane on another effort to break out of the bottom five.
So congratulations to Lewis Hamilton in taking pole position. Been a while since the seven-time champion was in at the sharp end of the grid – the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix back in 2021 – so it was refreshing to see car number 44 in P1.
Hungarian Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.609
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:16.612
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.694
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:16.905
5 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:16.971
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.992
7 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:17.034
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:17.035
9 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:17.045
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:17.186
11 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:17.703
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:17.841
13 Daniel Ricciardo AlphaTauri 1:18.002
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:18.144
15 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:18.217
16 Alexander Albon Williams 1:18.917
17 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:18.919
18 George Russell Mercedes 1:19.027
19 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:19.206
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 1:19.248
Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton charged to his first pole position since the closing stages of the 2021 season with a scintillating qualifying performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix, getting the better of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris at the end of an ultra-close qualifying hour.
In a session that saw Pirelli’s ‘Alternative Tyre Allocation’ in play, which enforced hard tyres for Q1, medium tyres for Q2 and soft tyres for Q3, Hamilton navigated the precarious opening exchanges to reach the top 10 shootout, where he bagged his first pole in 34 events (Saudi Arabia 2021).
Hamilton’s improvement on his second run demoted Verstappen – who could not find more time – to second by just 0.003s, with Norris eight hundredths further back in third, supported by rookie team mate Oscar Piastri in another strong showing from McLaren.
Zhou Guanyu was another star of qualifying as he took a high-flying fifth, followed by the lead Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and team mate Valtteri Bottas, who underlined Alfa Romeo’s strong pace around the twisty Hungaroring circuit.
Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin had to settle for eighth position, while Sergio Perez finally managed to end his rough patch of qualifying performances, albeit taking only ninth in his Red Bull, with Nico Hulkenberg the final Q3 runner.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.hamilton-beats-verstappen-and-norris-to-hungarian-gp-pole-in-qualifying.7lm5joHPTDuciNjtgsza5f.html
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton says his Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix pole “feels like the first time”, having not topped qualifying since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.
The switch to ground-effect cars last year heralded a lean period for Hamilton and Mercedes, with the seven-time world champion going without a win since 2021 and having to wait 33 races before qualifying on pole again.
Having ended Friday’s practice session with his car feeling “at its worst”, Hamilton topped FP3 on Saturday morning before going on to beat Max Verstappen by 0.003 seconds on his final lap of Q3 to claim his 104th career pole.
Speaking in parc ferme after qualifying, Hamilton admitted he “didn’t expect” to be in contention for pole and had “nothing left in it” come the end of the lap.
“It’s been a crazy year and a half,” Hamilton began.
“So, I’ve lost my voice from shouting so much in the car. It’s amazing, that feeling. I feel so grateful to be up here because the team have worked so hard.
“We’ve been pushing so hard over this time to finally get a pole, it just feels like the first time.
“And a big, big thanks to the crowd here. We have such an amazing crowd every year here in Budapest.
“I didn’t expect coming today that we would be fighting for pole. So, when I went into that last run, I gave it absolutely everything. There was nothing left in it.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamiltons-hungary-f1-pole-feels-like-the-first-time/10498710/
Max Verstappen said his Red Bull was “all over the shop” in qualifying for Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix after being beaten to pole position by Lewis Hamilton.
The world champion put himself at the top of the timesheets after the first run in Q3 but failed to improve on the critical final effort as Hamilton beat him to the top spot on the grid by just 0.003 seconds.
Reflecting on why he had not kept up his run of pole positions that stretched back to the Monaco Grand Prix, Verstappen blamed a lack of good balance throughout qualifying.
“I have been struggling the whole weekend to find a good balance,” explained the Dutchman. “Every session has been up and down.
“Today also in qualifying it was really difficult in Q1/Q2 to just feel confident, to really attack corners.
“I thought my first run in Q3 was quite good. But then the second run again, no feeling.
“I tried to push a little bit more, but you lose the rear, or lose the front. We are still second, but I think we should be ahead with the car we have normally. But so far I think we haven’t been on it.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-red-bull-all-over-the-shop-in-hungary-f1-qualifying/10498722/
Lando Norris admitted he felt “disappointed” to narrowly miss out on pole position for the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix after qualifying third for McLaren.
Norris headed the Q2 times on medium tyres, as F1 rolled out a new ‘alternative tyre allocation’ trial that stipulated which compounds teams must run in each qualifying segment, but came up just short in Q3 following the switch to the soft rubber.
The Briton was denied a second career F1 pole as he clocked a 1m16.694s that was just 0.085s slower than pacesetter Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, who pipped Max Verstappen’s Red Bull by 0.003s to end a pole drought dating back to Jeddah 2021.
Speaking after the session, Norris acknowledged that he was “a little bit” surprised to show so well in Hungary, before conceding his frustration.
“I’m disappointed, I guess,” he said. “If you’re within a tenth of pole, it feels like you should be on pole if you put the lap together.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/norris-disappointed-to-start-third-for-f1-hungarian-gp/10498725/