Qualifying thriller

LIVE from 4 p.m.: Who will win qualifying for the Hungarian GP?

Lando Norris takes pole position for the Hungarian GP.

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Lando Norris takes pole position at the Hungaroring! Behind him, McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri follows in second place. It is the first double pole for the team since 2012. World championship leader Max Verstappen starts from third position on race Sunday. Sergio Perez crashed, Yuki Tsunoda also flew off.

McLaren driver Lando Norris secured pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix in a hundredth of a second thriller. In Saturday's Formula 1 qualifying at the Hungaroring, the 24-year-old Briton took first place on the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix (15:00 in the Sportkrone.at ticker) with a narrow lead of 22 thousandths of a second over his team-mate Oscar Piastri. World champion Max Verstappen (+0.046 seconds) had to settle for third place in the Red Bull.

McLaren thus secured the front row of the grid for the first time in twelve years, since Brazil 2012. "I'm very happy, that wasn't an easy qualifying session," said Norris after his third pole. The championship runner-up finished second behind Verstappen in Hungary last season, and that is set to change this year. "Two cars on the front row, we can control it from the front. The goal is clear," Norris emphasized.

Verstappen: "It wasn't enough"
Championship leader Verstappen was not satisfied. "I tried, but we've been a bit behind all weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough," said the Dutchman, who is aiming for his third win in a row in Hungary. In the championship standings, Verstappen is a comfortable 84 points ahead of Norris ahead of the start of the second half of the season. "It's very close at the front and I hope it will be the same in the race tomorrow. Today was a bit cooler, tomorrow will be much hotter and hopefully that will help us," said the triple champion.

Carlos Sainz finished fourth in the Ferrari ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes and Charles Leclerc in the second Ferrari. A crash involving Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda made qualifying exciting again just under two minutes before the end, but the top times could no longer be improved.

Before qualifying, a brief rain shower in Mogyorod made for exciting conditions. Criticized Sergio Perez lost his Red Bull car in the first qualifying section, crashed into the wall in drying conditions and had to settle for a disappointing 16th place on the grid. Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko recently emphasized that Perez still has the two races before the summer break in Hungary and Belgium to secure his Red Bull cockpit with a performance upgrade.

Russell retired early
As overtaking maneuvers on the traditional circuit just outside Budapest are a difficult undertaking, Perez has his back to the wall again after six poor Grand Prix results in a row. Another disappointment was experienced by Spielberg winner George Russell, who was unable to finish higher than 17th in his Mercedes. After the Perez interruption, there were just under seven minutes left on the clock, but Russell had too little fuel in the tank to complete enough laps on the speeding track.

Here is the result in detail:

In the championship standings, Verstappen, who is aiming for his third win in a row in Hungary, leads Norris by 84 points ahead of the start of the second half of the season. The two Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are already 105 and 109 points behind respectively after twelve races.