Norris snatches pole position from Hamilton in gripping Hungarian GP Qualifying

Lando Norris clinched pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix with an impressive last-gasp effort to beat Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, making the most of his upgraded McLaren.

In the dying moments of Q3, Norris crossed the line with a 1m 17.207s lap, perfectly timing his effort to avoid two late yellow flags brought out by a spinning Max Verstappen and a stranded George Russell.

Hamilton was unable to improve on his final lap and took P2 ahead of Leclerc, while Kimi Antonelli settled for fourth place in a frustrating session for Mercedes.

Asked to park up by his team, Russell qualified P7 behind Oscar Piastri and Verstappen as both Red Bull drivers suffered spins during the final segment.

Isack Hadjar claimed P8, with Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top-10 qualifiers at the Hungaroring.

Liam Lawson failed to make it into the final part of Qualifying by 0.126s and will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from P11, leading Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto. Gabriel Bortoleto took an underwhelming P14 for Audi from Esteban Ocon and a much-improved Fernando Alonso.

Ollie Bearman was outqualified by his Haas team mate and wound up P17, missing out on a spot in Q2 by just over a tenth. He was joined in being knocked out by the Williams duo of Carlos Sainz (P18) and Alex Albon (P19), both of whom expressed their frustrations with the car after the session.

While Alonso made the most of his updated Aston Martin, his team mate Lance Stroll settled for P20 ahead of Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez.

- F1