HUNGARIAN GP – Lando Norris beats Oscar Piastri by two hundredths to take McLaren’s first front row lock out since Sao Paulo 2012
Lando Norris has beaten McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by two hundredths to take pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Englishman edged out his teammate with a in mixed conditions during a session which was interrupted by red flags to secure his third career pole and McLaren’s first front row lock out since 2012.
Having topped second and third practice at the Hungaroring, Norris kept his focus – as rain before and during qualifying created a dramatic spectacle. He has set his fastest time on the first run in Q3 before Yuki Tsunoda crashed with two minutes to go, during the red flag rain started to fall which then prevented.
Piastri setting his fastest time just at the right moment to slot in behind and four tenths ahead of Max Verstappen put his Red Bull third, four tenths ahead of Carlos Sainz. the top three getting in their fastest times just before the red flag. Piastri had gone just over two hundredths slower than Norris, with Verstappen only a further couple of hundredths back in third. Norris was unable to finish his second effort due to the incident.
Norris arrived in Budapest facing questions over his and McLaren’s failure to seal a victory that was in their hands at Silverstone two weeks earlier, and after topping second and third practice he was once more in the position of favourite going into qualifying. It gives McLaren their first front row lockout since Sao Paulo 2012.
It confirms that the Red Bull advantage which the team had looked ‘scarily dominant’ has vanished, and despite a big upgrade package they are no longer the fastest over one lap. But the RB20 may have still have strong race pace, McLaren are in a hugely strong position to claim a victory at a circuit where overtaking is highly challenging.
However, the advantage he appeared to have over his rivals in dry conditions was rendered somewhat irrelevant when the session began following an hour of light rain, and with more gentle showers expected. Once again, his one lap speed came through, as his first lap in Q3 put him comfortably ahead of Verstappen.
Norris, who took pole position, “I am very happy, not an easy qualifying, different conditions, always ending up on top, it’s the best part of it all. I’m happy especially for the team, a one-two is even better to see so congrats to the team. We’ve already got confidence, so it’s not like we not a lot more of it or we are searching for it.
Piastri added “It’s cool to be here, especially when you get a result like this. I think the first one-two in qualifying for McLaren for a very long time. Very happy of course but I missed out by two hundredths, so you think of all the little things you could’ve done better. But an amazing result for the team.”
Verstappen said “I tried to make it as close as possible but unfortunately just not enough, a bit difficult to pinpoint why that is, I would of liked a bit more grip but it’s not there at the moment. P3 is still very close but I just hope that for tomorrow the car is good tomorrow in the race and at least we can follow them and see what we can do there
Lewis Hamilton spilt the two Ferrari’s, the seven-time champion half a tenth ahead of Charles Leclerc as his Mercedes teammate George Russell was one of two surprise casualties in Q1 after Mercedes failed to provide him with enough fuel.
Hamilton had only just got into Q3 on what a difficult weekend has been following the teams wins at the last two races. He had only gone a hundredth faster than Nico Hulkenberg to make it into the final part of qualifying following late improvements by Haas.
Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin seventh, nearly a tenth and a half behind Leclerc as he was two tenths ahead of teammate Lance Stroll. Both RBs also made it into the final part od qualifying, Daniel Ricciardo two tenths behind the Canadian as he set the same time as teammate Tsunoda.
Tsunoda brought qualifying to an effective close, after bringing out the red flag with two minutes remaining, he ran wide and got onto the grass at Turn Five that sent him on a one-way ticket to the wall.
Hulkenberg missed out on the top ten after Hamilton’s improvement at the end of Q2, that put the Haas driver nearly seven hundredths faster than Valtteri Bottas. The Sauber driver stating that the lap was “all I’ve got” as he jumped the Williams. Alex Albon going thirteenth but believes he should have been faster; he was half a second behind Bottas as he went half a hundredth ahead of teammate Logan Sargeant.
Perez’s crash as he tried to escape the Q1 knock out left him sixteenth, his incident saw him spin the Red Bull at Turn Eight, he lost grip on a presumed damp kerb, hurling the Mexican into the fence to bring his session to an end and produce a red flag. That proved damaging for Russell, though he went tenth it was too early and he was shuffled out of qualifying.
He then couldn’t respond with a final attempt as he didn’t have enough fuel on board to keep running, and soon drifted towards the bottom five. He was thus unable to take advantage of the improving conditions
Guanyu Zhou was eighteenth ahead of the Alpine’s, with Esteban Ocon over a tenth faster than teammate Pierre Gasly.
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