Lewis Hamilton took pole position in his Mercedes for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the 12th round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship.
Hamilton will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Lando Norris (McLaren) after the hour-long qualifying session, which is split into three segments, with five cars eliminated in each of Q1 and Q2, before the top 10 shootout in Q3.
Formula 1 tested a new tire format this weekend, with teams running hard Pirellis in Q1, medium tires in Q2 and soft tires in Q3.
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Qualifying results for the Hungarian GP: Hamilton on pole ahead of Verstappen
What happened in Q1 of the Hungarian GP?
Valtteri Bottas set the early pace for Alfa Romeo on the hard tires with a time of 1m18.775s but had both Red Bulls within a tenth of a second. Verstappen beat him with a 1m18.658s, before Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Zhou Guanyu (Alfa) temporarily led the way – the latter remaining in first place with a 1m18.143s to the end.
With almost all the cars on the track at the end, traffic was chaotic while the drivers looked for a gap and falling at the first hurdle fell Alex Albon (Williams), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), shockingly George Russell (Mercedes, who caught traffic in the third sector), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Logan Sargeant (Williams).
Hungarian GP Q1 results: Zhou fastest ahead of Verstappen
What happened in Q2 of the Hungarian GP?
Verstappen set the initial pace at 1’17.296 on medium tires but had to miss the lap for exceeding the track limits at Turn 5, giving first place back to Norris with a 1’17.328. Verstappen retired early on his last run but only managed a time of 1:17.547 as a banker lap, which Hamilton beat and secured second place.
At this point, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz (missing Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin by 0.002s), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Daniel Ricciardo (AlphaTauri), Lance Stroll (Aston) and Pierre Gasly (Alpine, who lost his best time due to track limitations but wouldn’t have made it anyway) all retired.
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Hungarian GP Q2 results: Norris fastest ahead of Hamilton
What happened in Q3 of the Hungarian GP?
In the first few runs, Verstappen set the pace with 1:16.612 minutes, a tenth ahead of Hamilton, with Norris three tenths behind in third place.
In the final rounds, Hamilton clocked a time of 1m16.609s, beating Verstappen by 0.003s and clinching his record-breaking ninth pole in Budapest despite a bad end to his lap.
Verstappen, who hasn’t improved on his last attempt, will be second, ahead of Norris, Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Zhou, Leclerc, Bottas, Alonso, Perez and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas).
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Hungarian GP Q3 results: Hamilton takes pole
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