Max Verstappen takes maiden F1 pole position in Hungary

Hungarian GP

Verstappen takes maiden F1 pole position in Hungary

What a performance!

Matthew Scott

Saturday 3 August 2019 16:00 Updated: 22:21

Max Verstappen took his maiden pole position in scorching style as the Red Bull star took Saturday honours at the Hungarian Grand Prix in record time.

Driving in his 93rd grand prix, Verstappen backed up recent fine form with his first qualifying success to perhaps stake his claim to a late title charge in 2019.

Valtteri Bottas beat Lewis Hamilton to second place as Mercedes were unable to beat Verstappen, who delivered a lap of 1:14.572 to smash the previous lap record at the Hungaroring and become the 100th different pole-sitter in F1 history.

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The Ferrari pair of Charles Lelcerc and Sebastian Vettel fell away in the fight for pole, but came home fourth and fifth respectively, the Monegasque surviving a crash in Q1 which damaged his rear wing.

There was no denying Verstappen, however, as he secured the first Honda-powered pole position since Jenson Button's at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix.

Having won two of the last three races, outscoring Hamilton by 23 points over the period, it will increase hopes that Verstappen can hunt down the standings leader, while Bottas taking the front row will do likewise for the Finn.

Pierre Gasly qualified almost a second adrift of Verstappen in sixth, with Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz locking out the fourth row and Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen rounding out the top 10.

Q2

The middle segment perhaps gave Haas some more answers as Grosjean outqualified Kevin Magnussen by seven tenths. Nico Hulkenberg and Antonio Giovinazzi dropped out along with the Toro Rosso pair.

Q1

George Russell headlined the opening segment as he ran 16th-fastest in the Williams, by far their best qualifying performance of the season so far. He came within just five hundredths of making it through as the team's updates seem to be clicking. Robert Kubica, Lance Stroll went out in Q1, as did Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo, who was caught out fighting Stroll to go out at the first hurdle.