Lando Norris landed the first pole position of his world championship defence after he beat Lewis Hamilton to top spot for the Hungarian Grand Prix by just 0.012 seconds.
Hamilton appeared on course to end a three-year run without taking pole only to be usurped by Norris in the closing moments of a thrilling qualifying session at the Hungaroring.
Hamilton had to settle for second, a place ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc, but he still has a strong chance of taking a record-extending ninth win at venue he has so often ruled, and slash Kimi Antonelli’s advantage at the summit of the world championship standings.
Antonelli, who holds a 45-point lead over Hamilton heading into the final round before the sport’s summer break, starts only fourth after Mercedes’ exclusive run of poles at every round so far came to a stuttering end.
Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell was even further back in seventh as his title assault threatens to combust.
Russell’s campaign has been blighted by reliability problems and he stopped on track with another failure after he completed his last lap.
Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri finished fifth, four tenths back, with Max Verstappen sixth.
“How was it? It was good enough for pole but not my finest lap,” said Norris. “It was a difficult to put a lap together here that’s for sure. I am very happy to be here again. It’s been a while.
“I was confident I could do it. I knew I could go quite a bit better and the pace was there even though Ferrari have been insanely fast so far. But it is only qualifying and we need to repeat this result several times.”
Hamilton held an advantage of 0.101 sec prior to the deciding runs in Q3, but he could not improve on his time to leave the door ajar to the chasing pack.
Hamilton faces a stewards’ investigation for potentially impeding Piastri in Q3. Protesting his innocence, Hamilton said: “I was told literally (told by the team) when he was at the apex behind me. I didn’t know he was coming. I thought everyone had finished their lap. It wasn’t intentional.”
Leclerc also could not better his lap and although Antonelli marginally improved, he remained in fourth before Norris danced around the final corner to secure pole by the smallest of margins.
Norris was among the last drivers to cross the line after Ferrari elected to send both Hamilton and Leclerc out first for their decisive Q3 laps.
Hamilton said: “I don’t know why we went first and that was a shock to me. I definitely wouldn’t have chosen to do it that way.”
Further back, Russell – already 50 points behind Antonelli – could lose further ground in the title race.
He has struggled for speed all weekend and, seemingly low on confidence, lines up three spots behind the Italian teenager, more than half-a-second off the leading pace.
Aston Martin have brought a total of 16 upgraded components here in the hope of salvaging what has been a dismal season – one team principal Adrian Newey described on Friday as a “complete nightmare”.
Fernando Alonso made it out of Q2 for the first time this season and finished 16th, a minor boost to the British team. However, Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll was unable to progress from Q2 and starts 19th.
Aston Martin’s mild upturn in form has demoted Cadillac to the back with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez propping up the grid for Sunday’s race. While over at Williams, there appears to be no imminent light at the end of the tunnel, with both Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon eliminated in Q1.
Williams have scored just 11 points so far and it looks unlikely they will add to that disappointing tally, with only Stroll, Bottas and Perez behind Sainz and Albon, and overtaking expected to be difficult on Sunday.
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