In qualifying today, Lewis Hamilton takes pole position in Hungary, breaking his previous record of 103 pole positions to claim his 104th in a nail-biting pole fight.
Lewis Hamilton claims pole position ahead of tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix in an interesting qualifying session. Max Verstappen will join Lewis Hamilton on the front row with Lando Norris of McLaren taking the third slot.
In contrast to FP1 yesterday, the qualifying session was accompanied by clear blue skies and no sign of rain anywhere. The Hungarian GP weekend has, for the first time, hosted the trial of a new qualifying format. Drivers were required to use hard compound tyres during Q1, medium compounds in Q2, and soft tyres in Q3.
Track limits were the star of the show yet again with plenty of drivers losing out on precious times for crossing the white line. Among those affected were Kevin Magnussen who lost out on the chance to move on to Q2.
For the first time in 4 races, Alpha Tauri managed to get a car into Q1, and it was with Nyck de Vries’ sudden replacement, Daniel Ricciardo. Yuki Tsunoda was, unfortunately, unable to join his new teammate in the next round of qualifying.
As for Mercedes driver George Russell, a questionable choice by Mercedes to leave both their cars out too late lead to George being stuck in traffic and ultimately not being able to set a fast enough time to join his teammate Lewis Hamilton in Q2
Drivers knocked out in Q1
- Alex Albon
- Yuki Tsunoda
- George Russell
- Kevin Magnussen
- Logan Sargeant
Q2 had pole favourite Max Verstappen have his lap time deleted for placing his car just outside track limits and landed him in the elimination zone. Although, with 8 minutes to go in the session, the Dutchman was able to make up a decent time to show that he was in fact still in contention for pole position.
Carlos Sainz was knocked out of Q2 by his Ferrari teammate Leclerc at the end of the session, leaving him to start 11th, followed by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, who took 13th for AlphaTauri during his first competitive session since jumping back into an F1 race seat. Also unable to follow their teammate into Q3 was Lance Stroll, who qualified 14th.
Drivers knocked out in Q2
No one could have scripted that. No one could have seen it coming into the first qualifying session; no one could even see it following that first qualifying session. Lewis defied the odds and came out on top in Hungary today. This was pole 104 for Lewis, and his first since Saudi Arabia 2021.
Final qualifying classification
- Lewis Hamilton
- Max Verstappen
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- hou Guanyu
- Charles Leclerc
- Valtteri Bottas
- Fernando Alonso
- Sergio Perez
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Carlos Sainz
- Esteban Ocon
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Lance Stroll
- Pierre Gasly
- Alexander Albon
- Yuki Tsunoda
- George Russell
- Kevin Magnussen
- Logan Sargeant
Featured Articles
Featured Writers
