BUDAPEST, Hungary — Lando Norris clinched pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix with an impressive last-gasp effort to beat Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, making the most of his upgraded McLaren during qualifying Saturday at the Hungaroring.
In the dying moments of the session, Norris crossed the line with a 1 minute and 17.207 second lap, perfectly timing his effort to avoid two late yellow flags brought out by a spinning Max Verstappen and a stranded George Russell.
“I’m very, very happy – very happy to be back on top,” said Norris, with the result marking his and McLaren’s first pole of the season. “A tough, tough quali. Obviously, these guys here [the Ferrari drivers] were very quick. It’s been pretty tight the whole weekend.
“We’ve seemed quick from the first laps that we did. We brought a few upgrades, and it’s hard to know how much it helps in terms of lap time, but it certainly helped today.
“I’m very, very happy to be back on top, especially at a track where you want to be on pole.”
Hamilton was unable to improve on his final lap and took second ahead of Leclerc, while Kimi Antonelli settled for fourth place in a frustrating session for Mercedes.
Asked to park up by his team, Russell qualified seventh behind Oscar Piastri and Verstappen as both Red Bull drivers suffered spins during the final segment.
Isack Hadjar claimed P8, with Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top-10 qualifiers at the Hungaroring.
