F1 Qualifying Results: Hungarian Grand Prix 2023 times as F1 legend beats Verstappen to pole

Lewis Hamilton took a stunning pole position in Budapest, beating his great rival Max Verstappen into second place by just three thousandths of a second to break the all-time record for pole positions at a single track.

A dramatic qualifying session in Budapest saw some surprise performances – both good and bad – as teams were limited to hard tyres in Q1 and mediums in Q2.

The experimental qualifying rules gave teams less leeway to cover up their lack of pure pace by bolting on softer tyres, but the track's pace ramped up dramatically through the session.

Lando Norris finished third after cruising through into Q3 at the top of the timing boards ahead of Sergio Perez, Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas.

Carlos Sainz was knocked out in Q2 be just thousandths of a second, along with Daniel Ricciardo (who comfortably outqualified his team-mate), both Alpines and Lance Stroll.

The big loser of the session was the Mercedes of George Russell, whose team kept him from going out until the last moment in Q1 and paid the price. Having to fight through some traffic thanks to his late release, he failed to better his time and finished just 18th.

Here is a full rundown on those all-important qualifying positions.

F1 Qualifying Results: Hungarian Grand Prix 2023

1. Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes]: 1:16.609sec

2. Max Verstappen [Red Bull]: +0.003s

3. Lando Norris [McLaren]: +0.085s

4. Oscar Piastri [McLaren]: +0.296s

5. Zhou Guanyu [Alfa Romeo]: +0.362s

6. Charles Leclerc [Ferrari]: +0.383s

7. Valtteri Bottas [Alfa Romeo]: +0.425s

8. Fernando Alonso [Aston Martin]: +0.426s

9. Sergio Perez [Red Bull]: +0.436s

10. Nico Hulkenberg [Haas]: +0.577s

ELIMINATED IN Q2

11. Carlos Sainz [Ferrari]

12. Esteban Ocon [Alpine]

13. Daniel Ricciardo [AlphaTauri]

14. Lance Stroll [Aston Martin]

15. Pierre Gasly [Alpine]

ELIMINATED IN Q1

16. Alex Albon [Williams]

17. Yuki Tsunoda [AlphaTauri]

18. George Russell [Mercedes]

19. Kevin Magnussen [Haas]

20. Logan Sargeant [Williams]

How does F1 Qualifying work?

The 60-minute qualifying session is split into three finite windows which provides a dramatic prelude to Sunday's big race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2.

Then Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

In Hungary, however, teams are limited by tyre choices – only being allowed hard tyres in Q1, mediums in Q2 and the fastest soft tyres for the Q3 shootout.

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