GEORGE RUSSELL CLAIMED FIRST POLE IN FORMULA 1

George Russell scored the first pole position of his F1 career in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, beating the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc, as world championship leader Max Verstappen suffered a power loss on his final run and qualified in 10th place just ahead of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Pérez who was eliminated at the end of Q2.

In Q1, Verstappen headed out on track early and the World Championship leader immediately jumped to the top of the timesheet with the Mercedes AMG pair of Hamilton and George Russell taking second and third places ahead of Pérez.

Lando Norris then took P2 with a great lap, though Pérez soon powered ahead of the Briton with a second flyer. The Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Sainz Jr. then joined the action and Sainz Jr. took fourth place behind Russell as Leclerc only took P10.

Verstappen then lowered the benchmark, before Norris again moved ahead of Pérez, just two tenths behind Verstappen. Hamilton then demoted both by stealing P2 with his next lap. The Ferrari drivers, meanwhile, had completed another prep lap and on his second flyer Sainz Jr. took P2 behind Verstappen who again improved.

In the final runs of Q1 it was Hamilton who put in the best final flyer and he progressed to Q2 in P1, ahead of team-mate Russell and Sainz Jr. and Verstappen whose final time was deleted for a track limits violation in Turn 11. He progressed in P4, ahead of Norris and Alonso.

Pérez, meanwhile, struggled on his final flyer but made it through in P13. Further down, Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated in 16th place ahead of Alex Albon and Sebastian Vettel.

In the final moments Pierre Gasly’s lap, which would have put him ahead of Pérez, was deleted for going over track limits in Turn 5 and he was ruled out of Q2 in P19 ahead of the second Williams of Nicholas Latifi.

In the opening runs of Q2, Verstappen took top spot. Pérez took second place, but the Mexican’s time was then deleted for going over track limits at Turn 5 and he dropped to P15. However, after reviewing the footage, the stewards then reinstated the Mexican’s time and he jumped back up the order, but only to ninth place.

Leclerc then jumped to second place with a lap on new tyres and Sainz Jr. moved to fourth. Pérez’s second run was a tenth of a second slower than his opening run and when both Valtteri Bottas and Ocon improved to ninth and tenth in the final moments of the segment, the Red Bull driver was ruled out of Q3 in P11.

Also eliminated at the end of Q2 were Zhou Guanyu in 12th place, followed by Magnussen, Lance Stroll and the second Haas of Mick Schumacher.

In the first runs of Q3, Sainz Jr. went quickest, ahead of Russell with a lap on used tyres that put him almost three hundredths of a second ahead of Leclerc, with Hamilton fourth ahead of Alonso and Norris.

Verstappen, though, locked up badly in Turn 2 on his opening flyer and after complaining that his front-end grip had gone the Dutchman crossed the line 1.3s adrift of Sainz’s provisional pole time and in P7.

And a difficult final segment for the Red Bull driver went from bad to worse in the final run. As he rounded Turn 2 on his out lap Verstappen reported a loss of power and despite being given potential solutions to try on the steering wheel the problem could not be rectified and he failed to make it across the line before the chequered flag. He qualified in 10th place.

That left the the door open for Ferrari, but Leclerc could only put in a lap of 1:17.567. That handed him top spot but Sainz Jr. then crossed the line two tenths ahead of his team-mate.

It looked like the Spaniard had done enough to claim his second pole positio, but behind him Russell was flying and the Mercedes AMG driver claimed the first pole of his F1 career, four hundredths of a second ahead of the Ferrari driver.

Behind the top three, Norris qualified fourth ahead of Ocon, with Alonso in sixth place. Hamilton is set to line up in seventh ahead of Bottas, Ricciardo and Verstappen.