In his very last attempt, Lewis Hamilton took pole position in the Hungarian Grand Prix by three thousandths of a second against Max Verstappen. The McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will occupy the second row this Sunday at the Hungaroring.
Lewis Hamilton has been waiting for this for so long. Deprived of pole position since the 2021 edition of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion recalled the good memories of Max Verstappen during the qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. A result that saves the day for the Mercedes team, which saw George Russell be the main victim of the format tested this weekend at the Hungaroring. In effect, the winner in Brazil last year did not manage to get out of a Q1 during which the pilots were forced to go on track with hard tires. The only part of this session during which soft tires were authorized, Q3 saw Max Verstappen hold out his opponents for a long time. After a scare in Q2 on medium tires, with his first time erased for not respecting track limits forcing him to use a second set of tires, the double world champion gave everything in his last attempt. Crossing the finish line in 1’16”609, the Dutchman thought he had done the hardest by beating Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Hamilton back in the game
Indeed, at 82 and 293 thousandths respectively from the reference set by the Red Bull Racing driver, the Briton and the Australian confirmed that the potential of the McLaren seen at Silverstone was no accident. But it was without counting on Lewis Hamilton. While he was very critical of his single-seater this Friday, the Briton took advantage of being among the last on the track to snatch pole position. Thanks to a last sector more efficient than Max Verstappen, the seven-time world champion beat the one who succeeded him on the list by… three thousandths of a second with a lap of 1’16”609. A performance which pushed the two drivers from the Woking team back to the second row, but they will have the opportunity this Sunday to confirm the ascendancy taken in particular over Alpine in the constructors’ classification. The other surprise of this qualifying session is Alfa Romeo’s return to form. While Guanyu Zhou was the fastest with hard tires at the start of the session, the Chinese climbed to fifth place and was 21 thousandths of a second ahead of Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque gave a smile to the Ferrari team, which had seen Carlos Sainz Jr fail to extract himself from Q2 for two thousandths of a second, with an eleventh place on the starting grid.
Alpine will have to react
Valtteri Bottas, meanwhile, will be alongside Fernando Alonso in the fourth echelon this Sunday after edging him by just a thousandth of a second. After missing Q3 in the last five Grands Prix, Sergio Pérez was a little reassured but struggled when it was necessary to be the most efficient. The Mexican could not do better than the ninth fastest time and will accompany Nico Hülkenberg on the fifth row. On the Alpine side, it will be necessary to remobilize for the Grand Prix in order to avoid seeing McLaren fly away in the constructors’ classification because Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will start at the heart of the peloton, respectively twelfth and fifteenth. For his return, Daniel Ricciardo did not fail to beat Yuki Tsunoda. If the Australian took 13th place after passing the “cut” in Q1, this was not the case for the Japanese, only 17th during the first part of this qualifying session, who will thus be alongside the unfortunate George Russell. If the organizers of the championship wanted to improve the show with this altered session, they seem to have achieved their goal as Max Verstappen will have to get rid of Lewis Hamilton if he wants to continue his winning streak and that of Red Bull Racing.
FORMULA 1 – HUNGARY GRAND PRIX / QUALIFICATIONS
Q3 Ranking – Saturday July 22, 2023
1- Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) and 1’16”609
2- Max Verstappen (PBS/Red Bull Racing) à 0’’003
3- Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren) at 0”085
4- Oscar Piastri (AUS/McLaren) at 0”296
5- Guanyu Zhou (CHN/Alfa Romeo) at 0”362
6- Charles Leclerc (MCO / Ferrari) at 0”383
7- Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Alfa Romeo) at 0”425
8- Fernando Alonso (ESP/Aston Martin) at 0”426
9- Sergio Pérez (MEX/Red Bull Racing) at 0”436
10- Nico Hülkenberg (ALL/Haas) at 0”577
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