Red flags and two bad accidents. McLaren dominated F1 qualifying in Hungary, Verstappen again on the second row

Two years in a row, the Mercedes-powered team has been crowned champions in the Hungarian capital after qualifying, but this year the celebrations move to another British stable. McLaren confirmed its great form and will put both cars on the front row for the first time since the Italian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz will be breathing down their necks. Another wave of criticism can be expected from Sergio Pérez, who once again failed to finish qualifying.

• Sergio Pérez crashes and again has a tragic qualifying result
• Juki Cunoda also crashed, George Russell dropped out in Q1
• McLaren dominated qualifying in Hungary

The start of qualifying was affected by the changeable weather, which forced all drivers to complete as many laps as possible before the rain started to fall on the track. The pressure was on George Russell, who couldn’t even come close to teammate Hamilton in terms of speed and had his work cut out for him to get out of the bottom five.

But all efforts were cut short midway through Q1 for 11 minutes. This was because Sergio Pérez, who was feeling very good after Friday’s practice sessions, ended up in the barrier and was expected to end his run of miserable results in Budapest.

The Mexican has taken just 15 points from the last six race weekends and will have to hope for a miracle in Hungary if he wants to take points from his 16th place start.

In the end, the first qualifying session was the final one for Russell. Mercedes, like Alpine, misjudged the rapidly drying track. Only from the garage did they then watch a number of drivers record great times, despite none of them having DRS available. The French stable will therefore occupy the last row at the start. Russell will be joined on the penultimate row by Zhou Guangyu.

Lewis Hamilton escaped relegation in Q2 by just a hundredth of a second. In the final seconds, Nico Hülkenberg and Valtteri Bottas attacked his time. The German driver has to settle for 11th place after great performances in Austria and Great Britain. Hamilton’s former Mercedes teammate took his Sauber, equipped with new upgrades, to 12th.

The seventh row belongs to Williams. Alex Albon has again overtaken Logan Sargeant, but the gap between them is only a tenth. Slowest in Q2 was Kevin Magnussen.

The changeable weather also caught Cunda

Even in Q3, rain was forecast in the final minutes, so again it was important to be on track at the right time. Almost all drivers therefore set two fast laps with 2 minutes still left on the timing clock. At that point Júki Cunoda ended up in the barrier after a nasty jump over the kerb.

After the red flags were displayed, the first two positions were taken by the McLaren drivers. Behind them, Verstappen was 43 thousandths behind. He decided to stay in the garage after the restart of qualifying. Like Fernando Alonso, he judged the situation to be hopeless. The track had no potential to be faster and he had no unused soft tyres left.

The only one to complete a fast lap after the restart was Daniel Ricciardo, who moved up to 9th ahead of Cunoda. The rest of the field had to make do with the earlier times. This gave Lando Norris his third career pole position, although he only set one fast lap in Q3.

Oscar Piatri matched his best qualifying performance. He also helped McLaren take the front row for the start of the Grand Prix for the first time since 2012. Max Verstappen leaves without pole position for the fifth time in the last six qualifying sessions.

McLaren has a great chance to close the gap to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Cup and leapfrog Ferrari, who still hold second place. There is currently a 78-point gap between the Austrian and British teams.

Hamilton was certainly hoping for a better result after his fantastic performance at Silverstone. He’ll start fifth, surrounded on both sides by Ferrari’s monoposts.

Source: F1TV, X