Just 0.003 seconds separated pole-winner Lewis Hamilton and championship leader Max Verstappen in this morning’s Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, with the Mercedes driver taking a record ninth career pole at the Hungaroring, the most of any driver on any track in history.
A new format introduced by Formula 1 was a talking point of the session, with teams required to run on the hard compound in Q1, the medium compound in Q2 and softs in Q3.
Verstappen will start off the front row next to his long-time rival, while McLaren continue their strong run of form following comprehensive upgrades. Lando Norris starts third, with his teammate Oscar Piastri alongside.
Alfa Romeo is another squad that has shown great speed in Hungary and is rewarded with top-10 starts for both drivers. Impressively, Zhou Guanyu was fifth fastest, while Valtteri Bottas will start directly behind in seventh.
Charles Leclerc is the best-placed of the Ferrari drivers after teammate Carlos Sainz was knocked out in Q2 and starts sixth, ahead of Fernando Alonso in eighth. The Aston Martin driver was lucky to escape Q2, topping eleventh-placed Sainz by 0.002 seconds, while Guanyu was only 0.001 seconds ahead in ninth, making for a 0.003-second split between the three drivers.
An under pressure Sergio Perez could only manage to qualify ninth and will start next to Nico Hulkenberg.
Sainz has Esteban Ocon for company on the sixth row, with Daniel Ricciardo narrowly escaping Q1 to qualify as the best of the AlphaTauris in 13th, one spot ahead of Lance Stroll.
Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant round out the grid, respectively.
Russell was the shock elimination in Q1, caught up in a slow train of cars in the dying moments of the session as they crawled around the final corner to build a gap to begin their laps.
The Hungarian Grand Prix begins at 1.00 am and will be shown live on Sky Sport.
Header Image: Formula One – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, 2023 Hungarian GP. Lewis Hamilton. Source: Mercedes AMG
