For the first time since 2012, McLaren has swept the front row in Formula 1 qualifying.
Lando Norris led teammate Oscar Piastri in Q3 to lock down pole position for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix by a mere 0.022 seconds. The qualifying session featured a wet to dry surface change.
“[I’m] very, very happy,” said Norris. “Not an easy qualifying, difficult conditions like you said, but always ending up on top is the best part of it also. Happy, especially for the team, a one-two is even better to see, so congrats to the team.
“It does [give us confidence], but we’ve already got confidence so it’s not like we need a lot more of it, or we’re searching for it. We’ve come into this weekend and the last few happy and confident we can do a good job, and we’ve got a good car to fight for pole and that’s exactly what we did today, so like I said a great job by the team; we’ve been improving every weekend, so to end up on pole today is sweet.”
Behind the front row, points leader Max Verstappen qualified his Oracle Red Bull Racing machine in third. He’ll start alongside Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in fourth position.
“I was a bit frustrated we ended up with P3 today, but showing emotion shows I really care about our performance and doing well,” Verstappen said. “The long runs we did in the practice session today have been OK; we have been working throughout the weekend to find the right balance within the car but we still have work to do and need to be realistic.
“When the session had a red flag in Q3, we had used a new set of tires already so there was no point in going out again as we wouldn’t have improved on our lap time. I was hoping for a bit more from qualifying but we can assess and see what we can do to get the best out of the car a bit better and improve the pace.
“Today we ultimately didn’t optimize our performance: we will work with the Team to see what we can do ahead of tomorrow and make sure we have a better race day. I’m glad Checo is OK and it was a shame he crashed as he was having a decent weekend up until that point. It should be a bit warmer tomorrow as well and we see what the race brings.”
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez endured issues in Q1, which saw Perez crash after his initial run. He starts 16th.Â
Fresh off his win at Silverstone Circuit in his home country of the United Kingdom, Lewis Hamilton qualified his Mercedes entry in fifth.Â
Charles Leclerc was sixth, ahead of the two Aston Martin entries in Fernando Alonso (seventh) and Lance Stroll (eighth). Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Yuki Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Haas F-1’s Nico Hulkenberg, after finishing sixth in Silverstone, qualified 11th. Teammate Kevin Magnussen starts 15th.Â
American Logan Sargeant starts 14th.Â
Mercedes’ George Russell struggled in qualifying as he was a Q1 exit in 17th.Â