Lando Norris took pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix for McLaren in a closely fought contest with Lewis Hamilton, ultimately edging out the Ferrari by one hundredth of a second. Hamilton’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, was in third, with the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, in fourth for Mercedes.
Oscar Piastri was fifth for McLaren, Max Verstappen sixth for Red Bull after he spun on his final lap, while George Russell could manage only seventh and was told to pull his car off track after his final lap with a mechanical problem.
Hamilton, however, was under investigation for impeding Piastri during the Australian’s hot lap and a three-place penalty was confirmed.
Norris, the defending world champion, produced a supreme run to claim pole. Given that the team had opened the season off the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari, their upgrades at Miami and further developments added in Canada have proved impressive and they are the first team to deny Mercedes the top spot this season.
It is Norris’s second pole at the Hungarian GP and the 17th of his career, while for McLaren it is another strong result at the circuit. With Norris winning here last year and Piastri in 2024, they may well be in position to make it three in a row at a meeting where McLaren have a record 13 victories.
With the engine advantage Mercedes enjoy somewhat negated by the preponderance of cornering at the Hungaroring, McLaren and Norris made the most of their cars to take advantage and secure the team’s first pole this season in a tight fight with Ferrari.
On the opening laps in Q3, Verstappen made the running but was surpassed by Norris, though Hamilton nailed his first lap to take provisional pole with a time of 1min 17.219sec, a tenth up on Norris in second.
The track had been steadily rubbering in throughout the session, the times coming down as the grip increased and the final runs were crucial. Hamilton went early but could not improve on his time and Norris, the last man on track, was on a quick run. Immense through the middle sector, the margins were tiny and he edged out the seven-time world champion by one-hundredth of a second with a time of 1:17.207. As it was, the penalty would have denied Hamilton anyway and Leclerc moves up to the front row, with Antonelli and Piastri on the second and Hamilton down in fifth.
Aston Martin brought their radically overhauled B-spec car in the hope of turning round a disastrous opening to the season. The car was overweight and aerodynamically far from where they had expected to be, while their Honda engine is down on power and suffered from causing severe vibrations early in the season.
The team principal and designer, Adrian Newey, admitted it had been a difficult start. “These first races have been a complete nightmare,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get at least to a point of respectability now, that is the immediate goal.”
In qualifying at least they made a step forward with Fernando Alonso putting an Aston into Q2 for the first time this season, no mean feat given they were two seconds slower than the Cadillacs in Belgium. Alonso ultimately finished in 16th.
The success of the upgrade is considered to be key in persuading Alonso to stay for 2027, with a further development expected for Zandvoort when Honda will also bring their new engine.
The return of Malaysia to the F1 calendar this year could be confirmed as early as Sunday, with the meeting arranged after the cancellation of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It will take place between the rounds in Baku and Singapore on 4 October. The race at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur is expected to be branded as the Bahrain Grand Prix held in Malaysia, with Bahrain funding the event. The circuit last held an F1 meeting in 2017.
F1 is also understood to be looking into the prospect of hosting the season finale at Imola, if the final two rounds of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi are unable to be held because of the conflict in the Middle East.
