Lewis Hamilton is in unfamiliar territory. The Mercedes driver won his first pole since 2021 with a surprising performance in Saturday’s F1 qualifying session at the Hungaroring.
The pole is his ninth pole in Hungry and his first since Saudi Arabia in December of 2021.
“It’s been a crazy year and half, so I’ve lost my voice from shouting so much in the car,” said Hamilton. “It’s amazing that feeling, I feel so grateful to be up here, because the team have worked so hard. We’ve been pushing so hard over this time, so to finally get a pole, it feels like the first time.
Championship leader Max Verstappen looked to have enough speed to take a sixth consecutive pole of the season after his first flying lap in Q3 and was on provisional pole for much of the session, but Lando Norris was just 0.082 of a second off Verstappen’s time on his final lap to take second and with Hamilton still on track, the pole for the Red Bull driver seemed in jeopardy.
Hamilton was the last driver to take time and when the seven-time champion crossed the line he was 0.003 of a second clear of Verstappen.
“I’ve been struggling the whole weekend to find a good balance,” Verstappen said. “I had a really difficult Q1, Q2 to attack the corners. We are still second but I think we should be ahead with the car we have, but this weekend we haven’t been on it.”
Norris held onto third as the top three were covered by less than a tenth of a second.
“I’m disappointed I guess,” Norris said. “If you are doing within a tenth of pole, it feels like you could be on pole if you put the lap together. As a driver I’m not the happiest, I made too many mistakes.”
Oscar Piastri and Zhou Guanyu rounded out the top five starters.
Among those who failed to move forward was last year’s pole sitter for the Grand Prix, George Russell who was eliminated in Q1 joining Alex Albon, Yuki Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen and Logano Sargeant. In his return to the grid in replacement of Nyck de Vries, Daniel Ricciardo was able to make it into Q2 and will start 13th.
While Ferrari saw Charles Leclerc take sixth position, Carlos Sainz was eliminated in Q2 and will roll off 11th.
Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10.
FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX 2023 – QUALIFYING
| Pos | Driver | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:18.577 | 1:17.427 | 1:16.609 | |
| 2 | 1:18.318 | 1:17.547 | 1:16.612 | |
| 3 | 1:18.697 | 1:17.328 | 1:16.694 | |
| 4 | 1:18.464 | 1:17.571 | 1:16.905 | |
| 5 | 1:18.143 | 1:17.700 | 1:16.971 | |
| 6 | 1:18.440 | 1:17.580 | 1:16.992 | |
| 7 | 1:18.775 | 1:17.563 | 1:17.034 | |
| 8 | 1:18.580 | 1:17.701 | 1:17.035 | |
| 9 | 1:18.360 | 1:17.675 | 1:17.045 | |
| 10 | 1:18.695 | 1:17.652 | 1:17.186 | |
| 11 | 1:18.393 | 1:17.703 | ||
| 12 | 1:18.854 | 1:17.841 | ||
| 13 | 1:18.906 | 1:18.002 | ||
| 14 | 1:18.782 | 1:18.144 | ||
| 15 | 1:18.743 | 1:18.217 | ||
| 16 | 1:18.917 | |||
| 17 | 1:18.919 | |||
| 18 | 1:19.027 | |||
| 19 | 1:19.206 | |||
| 20 | 1:19.248 |
Q1 107% time – 1:23.613
Greg has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.