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Lewis Hamilton set a new F1 record by scoring his ninth pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix in which Daniel Ricciardo will start a superb 13th on his return to the sport.
Mercedes driver Hamilton beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was on a run of five consecutive poles, by just three-thousandths of a second to become the first driver to score nine poles at a single track.
Verstappen looked on course to make it six in a row with a lap of one minute 16.612secs but failed to improve on his second run in Q3, opening the door for seven-time F1 champion Hamilton to steal in with a 1:16.609s.
McLaren again underlined their resurgent form as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start third and fourth respectively, split by just over two-tenths of a second, and with the former 0.082s from making it an all-British front row.
On his return to F1 after an eight-month break, Ricciardo became the first AlphaTauri driver to reach Q2 since the Spanish Grand Prix.
The 34-year-old did just enough to beat team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who starts 17th, by just 0.013s, but given he had not driven the car until practice on Friday, compared to the Japanese who knows the AT04 inside and out, he could not have asked for a better performance.
The session was the first running to the new ‘alternative tyre allocation’ format – or ATA for short – with all drivers required to run Pirelli’s hard compound only in Q1, the mediums in Q2, and the softs for the top-10 shoot-out.
On the hard tyres, especially, it offered up the possibility of extended running, seeking to post ever quicker times as the minimal fuel load decreased rather than the more traditional out lap, fast lap, in lap.
The downside of the new format offered no opportunity for a midfield or back-of-the-grid team to throw on a set of softs and grab a surprise Q2 spot.
But there were still shocks as last year’s front-row pair of George Russell in his Mercedes and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz exited Q1 and Q2 respectively, while both Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu reached Q3.
Zhou will start a career-high fifth, with Bottas seventh, the duo sandwiching Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso lines up eighth, ahead of another poor qualifying performance from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
The Mexican at least reached Q3 for the first time in six races but finished four-tenths of a second behind Verstappen, and with cars in between them that Red Bull know should not be there.
Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 as he again underlined his fine form over one lap.
In Q1 on the hard tyre, Perez set the initial marker with a time of 1:19.282s but was quickly knocked off top spot by Bottas by four-tenths of a second in a car that suggested in practice it was at one with the circuit following a season of struggle so far for the team.
As the drivers cranked out the laps, Verstappen went quickest with a 1:18.658s, improving that to 1:18.318s, a time, though, that was only second quickest as Zhou led the way in his Alfa Romeo with a 1:18.143s.
Behind the Dutchman, following poor initial runs from Ricciardo and Tsunoda, the duo pitted for fresh hard tyres and promoted themselves up to eighth and sixth respectively with six minutes remaining.
It seemed the sensible option, with many then going for a late stop and a one-lap hit, and with the track at its optimum, but that resulted in chaos as the clock ticked down, with numerous cars virtually grinding to a halt approaching the final corner.
At that stage, Hamilton and Russell were in the drop zone, and while the seven-time F1 champion managed to clamber his way up to seventh, his fellow Briton was the shock casualty, qualifying 18th a year after claiming pole position for this race.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff expressed his anger at the situation with a thump of the desk in front of him.
Williams’ duo Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant will start 16th and 20th respectively, with the latter riding a kerb on his final run that compromised any hope of scraping into Q2.
With Tsunoda behind Albon and ahead of Russell, the other driver to exit Q1 was Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
On the mediums in Q2, Verstappen soon took the honours early on with a 1:17.296s, only for that lap to be deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 5.
Instead, it was McLaren pair Norris and Piastri who led the way, the former with a 1:17.328s, a quarter-of-a-second faster than his team-mate, followed by Perez, Alonso and Hamilton, with Verstappen at the foot of the standings without a time to his name.
The two-time champion was the first out of the garage on a fresh set of the yellow-striped tyres, which was not part of Red Bull’s run plan, and he had the track to himself as he embarked on his opportunity to clinch a place in the top 10.
Verstappen’s time was good enough to slot himself in between the McLaren duo, albeit still over two-tenths-of-a-second adrift of Norris, who stayed in the garage, seemingly believing his time good enough for Q3, and so it proved as he led the way ahead of Hamilton who managed to get within a tenth of a second.
As with Q1, there was another major casualty as Sainz will start 11th, finishing two-thousandths of a second behind Alonso, followed by Esteban Ocon in his Alpine, even though the French driver set the leading first-sector time.
Ricciardo did superbly to elevate his AlphaTauri into 13th, with the 34-year-old three-tenths of a second behind Alonso, whose team-mate Lance Stroll lines up 14th ahead of the second Alpine of Pierre Gasly.
On the softs in Q3, Verstappen found his form, posting an initial leading time of 1:16.612s, 0.126s clear of Hamilton, with Norris just under two-tenths of a second further back.
At least in Q3, there was a degree of familiarity, with the 10 drivers on the quickest tyre, and the least amount of fuel.
Yet Verstappen blew his second opportunity, allowing Hamilton to steal in and clinch the 104th pole position of his F1 career, and first since the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.
