Lewis Hamilton put aside yesterday's downbeat assessment of Friday practice to put in a dazzling final run to snatch pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver pipping Red Bull rival Max Verstappen to the top spot by three thousands of a second.
Lando Norris professed himself disappointed to end up in 'only' third place, meaning he will share the second row of the grid for tomorrow's race with McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri ahead of a stellar finish for Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu in fifth.
The new system of tyre allocations for qualifying succeeded in throwing a new dimension of uncertainty into the proceedings, with Carlos Sainz missing the cut at the end of Q2 and George Russell failing to progress from Q1 after hitting traffic, meaning he will start from P18.
After a topsy-turvy start to the weekend on Friday - red flags and rain in FP1 followed by limited running and an unexpected order on the timesheets at the end of FP2 - normality had been largely restored in Saturday's sunny and dry final practice albeit with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton pipping Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to top honours, and Haas' Nico Hulkenberg fending off the likes of Lando Norris, George Russell, and Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to take fourth.
One of the reasons why things had been so mixed up on Friday was the introduction of Pirelli's new Alternative Tyre Allocation, which had originally intended to be trialled in Imola in May before it been cancelled due to local flooding. It cuts the number of sets of slick tyres available to each driver to just 11 from the usual 13 for the whole weekend, as well as mandating teams to run different compounds in each round of qualifying. It all lent a new degree of high uncertainty as the cars lined up for the start of the session in sunny, warm and dry conditions.
Q1: Zhou beats Verstappen, Ricciardo through but Russell, Albon and Tsunoda miss out
The new rules stipulated that all 20 cars had to run the first round of qualifying on the hard compound. While the leading teams like Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes could feel fairly confident of making the cut regardless, it presented threats and opportunities to those further back and to anyone hitting an unexpected problem.
First out on track when the lights went green were the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, followed closely by Sainz. Ocon took an early lead with a time of 1:19.658s only to be quickly usurped by Perez setting a new benchmark of 1:19.292s. But this was clearly a long way off the best times available to the drivers, with Valtteri Bottas' 1:18.818s soon putting the Alfa Romeo ahead. Not even Verstappen could quite beat that with his first run, and he had to settle for second while Oscar Piastri was briefly third until he was bested in turn by the two Mercedes of Hamilton and George Russell.
The first track limits time deletion was for Kevin Magnussen after the Haas strayed too wide in turn 5 leaving the Dane without a time, and he was just the first. The others flirting with the drop zone at this admittedly early stage included Sainz, Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and the AlphaTauri cars of Yuki Tsunoda and returnee Daniel Ricciardo, while both Williams drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant had also been stripped of their first flying laps. However there was still plenty of time left to change things around before the chequered flag.
Bottas marginally improved his advantage at the top to stay ahead of a new effort from Perez which pushed the Mexican ahead of Verstappen and McLaren pair Norris and Piastri. Verstappen finally found a few tenths to take the top spot with 1:18.658s, just as Tsunoda vaulted to the safety of fourth with his latest run and Ricciardo likewise moved up to P8 ahead of Alonso. Albon also found safety in P10 once he got a valid time on the board, going within half a second of Verstappen.
Ocon had been in the drop zone until his next lap put him up to fourth, and then Gasly likewise found a burst of extra speed to move up to second. By now the improvements had pushed Hamilton down onto the bubble in P15 and Leclerc was on the wrong wise of the cut in 16th; the Monegasque soon jumped up to fourth just behind the latest from Sainz. Meanwhile Zhou Guanyu turned heads with a time of 1:18.143s putting him 0.217s ahead of Perez at the top of the time sheets. Norris was the latest to have a lap time deleted leaving him 13th ahead of Russell, Ricciardo and Albon with Hamilton still languishing in 17th, and now they really were running out of time: one mistake, one more deleted lap, and it could be disaster for any of them.
Verstappen certainly wasn't feeling any heat, although his final run was only good enough to tuck into second, still 0.175s behind Zhou. Hamilton scrambled to safety in seventh, and Norris also navigated his way through in tenth, but that left Russell caught out by heavy traffic in the final corner, and he was eliminated after a poor first sector. Also out were Albon, Tsunoda, Magnussen and Sargeant - but Ricciardo had survived in 15th, the first time in four races that an AlphaTauri would appear in round two.
Q2: Norris beats Hamilton, Verstappen survives track limits scare as Sainz drops out
With the hard tyre ordeal over for the drivers, it was on to the somewhat more familiar territory of the medium compound for Q2. Perez made a brisk start with Ocon and Stroll close on his heels and Verstappen half a minute behind, but the others were initially content to hold back in the garage. Perez laid down the gauntlet with a time of 1:17.675s which was four tenths ahead of Ocon, but not nearly fast enough to prevent Verstappen taking charge on 1:17.296s - only for the Dutch driver to promptly have it deleted for exceeding track limits.
Most of the remaining drivers were now out and in action. Norris took over Verstappen's vacant spot at the top with a time of 1:17.328s which was 0.243s ahead of Piastri, leaving Perez third ahead of Alonso, Hamilton, Zhou and the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz. At this point the cars headed back to pit lane for a change of tyres before making their final runs, meaning Verstappen was cutting it fine to lay down any time at all to see himself safely through to the final round.
Verstappen duly wasted no time getting back out on a shiny set of new mediums, and had the track to himself for a safety-first banker lap that put him second, splitting the two McLarens at the top but still a little over two tenths off Norris' target time. Hulkenberg had an excellent final run to jump up to fourth, and then it was Hamilton's turn to displace Verstappen from second. Bottas also jumped up to fourth ahead of Piastri while Leclerc successfully scrambled to improve his time to move ahead of Hulkenberg as well. However that meant dismay for his team mate, with Sainz now ending up 11th - meaning he was eliminated along with Ocon, Ricciardo and Stroll, as well as Gasly whose final lap time was one last casualty of track limits.
Q3: Hamilton pips Verstappen, Norris 'disappointed' with third on all-McLaren second row
With everyone now on soft tyres, a queue formed early at the exit of pit lane as the drivers sought to avoid the final corner congestion that had proved so costly to Russell earlier in the session. Perez once again took point with Alonso and Norris next up, but no one was dallying this time. The Mexican driver's opening gambit clocked in at 1:17.142s, but this proved 0.238s slower than Norris' immediate response. That was good enough to see off all-comers, at least until Verstappen predictably took over with a time of 1:16.612s and Hamilton slotted in to second ahead of the McLaren.
Now there was a pause with all cars back on pit lane preparing for the final charge. Hulkenberg, Perez, Verstappen and Leclerc were the first to blink with three minutes remaining on the clock, preferring to come out early onto a clear track rather than end up in traffic, but things were soon getting busy again and cars jockeying for position, Verstappen unexpectedly allowing Leclerc to go ahead of him. Last to come out was Hamilton - but that was a tactic that hadn't worked well for his team mate at the end of Q1. Would it work better for Mercedes this time around?
The Ferrari moved into fourth with its final run, before Piastri then displaced him. Norris improved his time too but couldn't quite match Verstappen, who failed to find more economies and improve on his earlier laptime. And then Hamilton went quicker than the pair of them, taking pole from Verstappen by three thousandths of a second to the delight of the fans in the grandstands at the Hungaroring. It's only the second time this season that Red Bull have failed to come out top in qualifying.
A record ninth career pole position for the Hungarian GP means that Hamilton will share the front row with Verstappen for the start of Sunday's race, while Norris and Piastri will make it an all-McLaren second row. Zhou was an impressive fifth putting him alongside Leclerc on the grid, and Bottas confirmed a strong day for Alfa in seventh leaving him alongside Alonso. Perez might have made it through to the final round of qualifying for once, but P9 just ahead of Hulkenberg would still have been on the low end of Red Bull boss Christian Horner's expectations for him for the weekend.
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