Two McLarens on the front row in the Hungarian GP: it hadn’t happened since 2008! The Woking team finally collects a result that repays the technical superiority of the papaya single-seater. Lando Norris signs the third pole position start of his career, the second of the season after the one in Barcelona. Andrea Stella can rub his hands because Oscar Piastri arrived just 22 thousandths behind his teammate.
The Englishman set a sensational 1’15″227 on the first run with the soft tyres, a time 1″4 faster than last year’s pole position. The Hungarian track does not make overtaking easy and track position becomes crucial: Lando has wasted several opportunities and tomorrow he will have the opportunity to reap what he has sown, so much so that the British driver did not indulge in too many celebrations.
In the second row is Max Verstappen with the Red Bull without the baookas and with the early updates that were planned for Zandvoort. The world champion hoped to get back in front of everyone and missed the target by just 46 thousandths. When the Dutchman saw his gap on the display he reacted by punching the steering wheel, a sign that he tried and, perhaps, he was also annoyed for having, involuntarily, given a bit of slipstream to his rival. Red Bull will be a strong contender in a race that promises to be very hard-fought.
All the others seem to be cut off, starting with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. The Spaniard is fourth and therefore brings Ferrari to the role of third force, but the gap from the top three of almost half a second says a lot that Maranello still has a lot of work to do before returning to the forefront. Charles Leclerc is not shining: the Monegasque is sixth and has suffered all weekend, starting with the crash in FP1. Not serene and unable to express his true potential.
All the drivers set the time in the first attempt because Yuki Tsunoda demolished his Racing Bulls at the exit of turn 5: the Japanese lost the Faenza car, ending up wide and crashing violently into the barriers with just over two minutes to go to the checkered flag. Yuki emerged unharmed from the accident, even though the team will have to work all night to rebuild the single-seater which had also lost the left rear. At the restart the cars remained at the pit lane lights for a long time and only Daniel Ricciardo managed to improve his performance: the Australian still had a set of new soft tyres and managed to overtake his teammate. Many drivers gave up on the lap (Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso) and others aborted the lap (Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz), while Charles Leclerc was called back to the garage because he would have taken the flag as he was the last to queue.
It was a strange qualifying session that was held entirely on the soft tyres, but with the drizzle that affected the start of the session and then remained only as a threat that never materialised.
In this much cooler than expected climate (many teams have partially closed the engine hood vents), Mercedes takes home only the fifth place of Lewis Hamilton. The Silverstone winner struggled with the W15, so much so that he risked exclusion in Q1 by just 10 thousandths. The black-silver arrow will play with the reds, but it will be a game off the podium.
Aston Martin performed well with Fernando Alonso seventh and Lance Stroll eighth. The grid position was satisfactory, while the gap was disappointing: the Spaniard paid eight tenths and the Canadian a second. In the Silverstone team we expected something more from the deeply revised AMR24.
Nico Hulkenberg saw his dream of getting into Q3 with Haas vanish by a gap of 10 thousandths: the great thing is that the German made his last attempt with a set of used soft tyres, otherwise he would have passed easily. Positive is the 12th place of Valtteri Bottas with the revised and corrected Sauber. The Finn can appreciate the leap in quality with this C44 that finally seems to work.
In 13th place we find Alexander Albon ahead of his teammate Logan Sargeant, who was able to overcome the first cut with Williams. The American reacted coolly to the attempt of the James Vowles team to drop him to make room for Esteban Ocon.
Kevin Magnussen with the second Haas did not impress and settled for 15th place: he did his part by missing the first cut.
Sergio Perez disappoints once again after crashing at turn 11 on lap 5 of Q1: the Mexican lost his RB20 after going too far on the kerb and violently crashed the rear end into the barriers on the inside. The extremely disappointed driver exited the Red Bull cockpit under his own steam, aware that his adventure with the world champion team could come to an end after the summer break. The red flag stops the session, while the track gets wet.
When the session restarts, Alpine decides to keep the two drivers in the pits because they were theoretically qualified. Too bad the asphalt dried out quickly, so much so that Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly slipped to the back of the grid. Incredible, but true. Bruno Famin’s team makes amateur mistakes.
Things didn’t go any better for George Russell with the Mercedes: the Englishman was 14th and, rightly, wanted to get back on track, but the team gave him little fuel and he wasn’t able to do a good enough lap to avoid the cut because the track was gradually improving. George couldn’t make another attempt due to lack of fuel and stayed out with the 17th time. Russell was very disappointed because he was convinced he had a competitive car.
Guanyu Zhou with Sauber also remains out: the Chinese never found the pace throughout the weekend. The Asian is in full involution phase…
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