Norris outqualifies Hamilton to snatch up pole position in Hungary on Saturday

By Abigail Perez

It was Lando Norris who was the quickest on track, as he grabbed pole position with a last minute effort to fend off Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. Cars were hot on the track during the start of Q3. Norris being the hottest, and finished with his first pole position as a world champion.

Throughout much of the day, Norris continued to be the man to beat. He started the weekend with pace and some mistakes, but they faded away and his confidence showed during qualifying.

Max Verstappen was looking at a promising finish, but on his final effort, he took a spin to come out P6, and after other finalized penalties, he bumped up to P4. Verstappen’s spin caused world championship leader Kimi Antonelli to slow his pace, resulting in a P4 finish, but dropped to P7 after penalties. Charles Leclerc was hunting down his 28 th pole position, but in a suboptimal first sector in his last effort, he reached P3.

After penalties had been handed out, Leclerc bumped up a spot into P2 with Hamiton knocked down into P5. At the start of Q2, Isack Hadjar took a spin into the grass, which interrupted the laps of the drivers moving through, but Hadjar was able to hold on and keep the car moving. Though Hadjar has always made it into the top 10 shootout, he struggled with the car when it came to turning. With a bit more grit, he pushed through and made it into Q3. Antonelli complained about a lack of grip in the tyres, but luckily he was able to make it to Q3 after he had a lap time deleted for track limits.

It was also a difficult session for the Alpines as they are both out in the Q2 session. George Russell struggled with the breaks early on in Q1, but he pulled through to make it to the next session. Both Alpines fought hard to get Alonso out, but those Aston Martin upgrades seem to be working as Alonso rose up to P15 to make it into Q2. Audi was also working well, with Hulkenberg improving to P6 to continue into Q2.

Unfortunately, Both Williams couldn’t get out of the elimination zone resulting in a Q1 exit, along with Bearman, Stroll, Bottas and Perez.