POLE FOR BOOST OF LEWIS`S CONFIDENCE

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in qualifying for Hungarian Grand Prix. Championship leader, Max Verstappen was short 0.003 seconds and ahead of Lando Norris, who took P3 in a tightly contested session in which the top three were covered by less than a tenth of a second.

Verstappen looked to have done enough to take a sixth consecutive pole with his opening flying lap of Q3. The Dutchman claimed provisional pole with a lap 1:16.612 and when the impressive Norris crossed the line 0.082s off the champion on his final lap it looked like Verstappen’s failure to improve wouldn’t be punished.

Hamilton was the last man left to cross the line, however, and when the seven-time champion crossed the line he was 0.003s clear of Verstappen and on pole. It mark’s the Briton’s ninth pole at the Hungaroring, a new single circuit record in Formula 1.

Qualifying at the Budapest circuit saw the debut of the Alternative Tyre Allocation, with teams restricted to 11 sets of the tyres for the weekend instead of the usual 13. It also reframed the battle for grid position, with teams required to use Hard tyres in Q1, Mediums in Q2 and Soft tyres for the final top-10 shootout.

In Q1 Verstappen looked to be in control when, with eight minutes left in the 18-minute session, the Dutchman jumped to P1, with time that featured personal bests in every sector.

However, with a little over four minutes left, his Red Bull team-mate, Sergio Pérez, moved to the top of the order. He was quickly beaten by Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who went two tenths of a second quicker and Carlos Sainz Jr. moved to P3 for Ferrari ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The track was quickly improving and it meant that in the final moments Verstappen slid to seventh place. He took a new set of tyres and just after the chequered flag fell he took second place behind Zhou.

At the other end of the order, the returning Daniel Ricciardo took his AlphaTauri into Q2, 0.007s ahead of Alex Albon who was eliminated ahead of Ricciardo’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell and last-placed Logan Sargeant in the second Williams.

At the start of the second segment, Pérez set the benchmark. Verstappen found plenty more pace, however, and he took P1 almost four tenths clear of his team-mate. However, the championship leader’s time was swiftly deleted for a track limits infringement in Turn 5.

Norris then took P1, three tenths ahead of Pérez and the McLaren driver was joined at the top by his team-mate Oscar Piastri who slotted into P2. Verstappen returned to the garage and with a new set of Medium tyres onboard the Dutchman jumped to safety. In the final moments Norris kept hold of top spot as Hamilton pushed Verstappen to P3.

There was no place in Q3, however, for Sainz Jr., with the Spanish driver dumped to P11 by a last-gasp lap from team-mate Charles Leclerc who took P6. Also out at the end of the middle segment were 12th-placed Esteban Ocon, followed by Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly, who had his final lap deleted for a track limits transgression in Turn 4.

When the green lights went on to signal the start of the top-10 shootout, it was Verstappen who claimed bragging rights in the opening runs with the champion claiming provisional pole, ahead of Hamilton.

In the final runs, however, the Dutchman couldn’t find the pace needed to stretch ahead and a slow final sector meant he failed to improve. Norris slotted in behind him, eight hundredths of a second off the champion but last across the line was Hamilton and the Mercedes AMG driver managed to edge to pole position ahead of Max by the tiny margin of three thousandths of a second.

With Norris third, fourth place went to the Briton’s team-mate Oscar Piastri while Zhou Guanyu scored an impressive fifth place ahead of Leclerc, Bottas and Alonso. Checo made a small gain on his final lap but in the end his time was only good enough for ninth place and row five alongside Nico Hülkenberg.