Massive shock as Max Verstappen BEATEN to pole in Hungary

Max Verstappen during press conference in Spain — Photo: © LAT Images

Hungarian Grand Prix

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Massive shock as Verstappen BEATEN to pole in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton claimed his first pole position since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP in an immense battle

Harry Smith

Saturday 22 July 2023 17:08

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F1's experimental hard-medium-soft qualifying format debuted at the Hungaroring on Saturday afternoon and the drama followed with Lewis Hamilton claiming pole position following a scintillating Q3 lap.

With the first laps of the session out of the way Max Verstappen was leading the way by just over a tenth from the British duo of Hamilton and Lando Norris, setting up a three-way fight for pole position.

As the final runs played out Norris improved to P2, but it was still Verstappen at the top of the timing screen as Hamilton navigated his final flying lap.

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The seven-time world champion crossed the line to rapturous applause, taking an incredible pole position ahead of his long-term rival Verstappen.

Norris rounded out the top three ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri with Zhou Guanyu sitting P5.

Charles Leclerc's effort was only good enough for P6 in the end, while Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.

Hungaroring heaven for Zhou

Alfa Romeo have endured a difficult 2023 season to date, but the Italian team were the talk of the town at the start of Q1 with Valtteri Bottas jumping to the top of the timing sheets after the first set of laps

Bottas and Zhou both showed pace on their soft compound tyre qualifying simulations in FP3, and that pace translated into lap time on the hard tyres.

Sergio Perez also demonstrated pace in the early stages of Q1, settling the nerves by lapping within a couple of tenths of Verstappen's times.

Alfa Romeo were the major shock of Q1 in Hungary

McLaren's pace was extremely convincing on the hard tyres with Norris and Piastri - who both impressed at Silverstone - both battling at the top of the timing sheets.

Verstappen snatched the top spot from Bottas with eight minutes remaining before Zhou Guanyu punched in an immense lap to go fastest overall.

The drama ran to the chequered flag with George Russell failing to make the most of his one shot at getting out of Q1, ending the session in P18.

When the chequered flag waved, five drivers were eliminated with Russell joined by Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant in the bottom five.

Track limits trouble for Verstappen

With fresh sets of medium compound tyres on the cars, Verstappen reasserted his dominance over team-mate Perez, but only temporarily.

The Dutchman produced a lap time almost four-tenths faster than his Red Bull team-mate but exceeded track limits on the exit of turn five, deleting his lap time and conceding the top spot to Norris.

Oscar Piastri then made it a McLaren one-two ahead of Checo in P3 with Verstappen without a time heading into the second half of the session.

When Verstappen did produce a valid lap he crossed the line in P2, two-tenths down on Norris, and the two-time world champion would eventually drop down to P3 behind Hamilton.

It was a disastrous end to Q2 for Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll, both of whom failed to make the cut following underwhelming final runs.

Joining Sainz (P11) and Stroll (P14) in dropping out of the session were Esteban Ocon, Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly.