Written by Owen Bradley
Lando Norris took pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Oscar Piastri lining up alongside him in a red-flag disrupted Qualifying.
Rain began falling in the intermission between the Formula 2 Sprint race and Formula 1 Qualifying, the rain settling onto the circuit as it got heavier during the first half of Q1. It was a testing qualifying session for the drivers, with the driver only at full throttle for 55% of the technical Hungaroring circuit.
Qualifying 1
Rain got heavier at the start of Q1, with multiple drivers making mistakes. Logan Sargeant would lock up both of his front tyres and slide into the wall at Turn 1, after setting a lap time inside the Top 10.
The red flags would be waved after Sergio Perez crashed hard into the outside barriers at Turn 8 after clipping the entry curb which was dampened by the rain. Perez's session would get even worse after being eliminated in Q1, the Mexican will start from 16th position and has been eliminated from yet another Qualifying session. After a red flag period, the drivers would get restarted and attempted to make it into Q2.
George Russell was among a few others looking to safely make it further in Qualifying, the Mercedes driver was running in 14th before the red flag and was the first one attempting to make progress in the final few minutes of Q1.
Unfortunately for Russell, it appeared that he went out too early, as he would manage to climb up to 10th before other drivers began improving rapidly. Daniel Ricciardo would set a blistering lap time to top Q1, as a number of other drivers also climbed the time sheets and got themselves through to Q2.
Eliminated Drivers: Sergio Perez (16th), George Russell (17th), Guanyu Zhou (18th), Esteban Ocon (19th), Pierre Gasly (20th).
Qualifying 2
Q2 would bring a more conventional result, as the track dried out and drivers began finding the pace to set 1:15.000's, rather than the 1:17.000's of Qualifying 1.
Towards the end of the session, as drivers began finding further pace in the mid 1:15.000's , it would be Lewis Hamilton under pressure to make it into Q3, as Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg got extremely close to the 7-time World Champion's lap time, almost sending another Mercedes out of Qualifying.
Daniel Ricciardo continued his impressive pace from Q1, making it into Q3 convincingly, both RB cars performing well around the tight Hungaroring circuit. Both Williams drivers of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant would have their session come to a conclusion with both cars not quite able to make it through to the final stage of Qualifying.
Both Aston Martin drivers would make it into Q3, with Fernando Alonso having a particularly strong showing after a difficult few races.
Eliminated drivers : Nico Hulkenberg (11th), Valtteri Bottas (12th), Alex Albon (13th), Logan Sargeant (14th), Kevin Magnussen (15th)
Qualifying 3
Rain would be forecast to fall just five minutes into the final qualifying session, with drivers' first runs therefore being crucial.
Lando Norris would set a blistering lap time of a 1:15.227 for his first run, beating Max Verstappen by over three tenths of a second on the first run, the Red Bull driver running in second place, with Oscar Piastri also joining his McLaren teammate in the podium positions.
Charles Leclerc would manage to get into fourth on his first run, however he was nearly seven tenths down on the provisional polesitter of Lando Norris.
Rain would begin falling lightly, however it would surprisingly not affect the cars too much for their second runs, with almost every car setting a personal best lap, as Oscar Piastri went second fastest, just 0.022s from Lando Norris.
Verstappen would go third fastest on his second run after making some minor changes to the front wing due to understeer.
Yuki Tsunoda would run wide at Turn 5's long right-hander, into the exit curb and his RB would be propelled up into the air periodically as he clattered into the barriers, forcing the Japanese driver to retire from Qualifying.
Verstappen would get out of his Red Bull, seemingly unconvinced that he could find any further lap time, as the other drivers bunched together at the end of the pit lane.
Carlos Sainz would not be able to make it on a final run after the train of cars in front of the Spaniard ran quite slowly.
None of the cars would be able to improve too much with the rain coming down, the only car that did manage to improve would be Daniel Ricciardo, who made it to 9th place, overtaking his teammate Tsunoda.
So Lando Norris took his third ever pole position, with teammate Oscar Piastri joining him on the front row for McLaren, just 0.022s away from the Brit. Max Verstappen would line up in third, just 0.046s away from Norris.
The Hungarian Grand Prix gets underway tomorrow at 14:00pm UK Time.
F1 Hungarian Grand Prix - Qualifying Results
1st Lando Norris, McLaren - 1:15.277
2nd Oscar Piastri, McLaren +0.022
3rd Max Verstappen, Red Bull +0.046
4th Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
5th Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
6th Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
7th Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
8th Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
9th Daniel Ricciardo, RB
10th Yuki Tsunoda, RB
11th Nico Hulkenberg, Haas
12th Valtteri Bottas, Sauber
13th Alex Albon, Williams
14th Logan Sargeant, Williams
15th Kevin Magnussen, Haas
16th Sergio Perez, Red Bull
17th George Russell, Mercedes
18th Zhou Guanyu, Sauber
19th Esteban Ocon, Alpine
20th Pierre Gasly, Alpine
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