Hungarian GP – Syndication Server

Mercedes still faster than McLaren despite falling behind in Hungary – Wolff

Mercedes had a quicker car than McLaren at the Hungarian Grand Prix but failed to capitalize on it, according to Toto Wolff. Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole position but slipped to fourth in the race, behind Lando Norris in second and Sergio Perez …

Mercedes had a quicker car than McLaren at the Hungarian Grand Prix but failed to capitalize on it, according to Toto Wolff.

Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole position but slipped to fourth in the race, behind Lando Norris in second and Sergio Perez in third. George Russell had a very different race as he recovered from starting 18th to finish sixth, and Wolff believes the way that Mercedes handled its tires during a hot race at the Hungaroring proved the wrong way to try and beat Norris to second.

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“I think we had the second quickest car but the result doesn’t show it,” Wolff said. “In theory we had the second quickest car and we didn’t monetize on it, and that’s always disappointing. We have got to find out how we could have done that better.

“You can see that George came to the front from a long way down and beating the Aston Martins and Ferraris. So we just need to analyze that.

“We were too careful in bringing the tires in. After the stops we lost a lot of time. It paid off towards the end of the stint, because we were miles quicker than everybody else but it’s always a balance and I believe the balance was a little bit too much in terms of bringing them in.

“To strike that balance right is really difficult, because you can see that if you are hammering them like Lando did or Oscar (Piastri) did or also Checo did, at the end you are just falling off massively. So bringing them in when you can is definitely advantageous, but probably we have been too conservative in the way we bring them in and we lost too much time at the beginning.”

And Wolff says it wasn’t just the final stint where both Hamilton and Russell appeared quickest that Mercedes showed strong pace in, although the advantage held by Max Verstappen means such small issues hold less significance to the team principal.

“You have seen it in the second stint as well, where we lost a lot of time in the beginning and then gained massive chunks back at the end. But that’s a balance and we need to look at striking that balance right.

“As surprising as it sounds, in terms of pace it was quick in terms of the rest of the world. In the F2 pack it was quick. The F1 car won by 34 seconds. But in a way it is irrelevant. We need to calculate it and say what can we do better at the next race and then optimize from there.

“We can talk each other up and say we could have been or would have been second, but in a way that is irrelevant because you have a car in front that is 34 seconds clear and probably he was cruising for a long time. That’s the bitter reality.

“But as I said before, it is a meritocracy and as long as you are moving within the regulations then you have overall just done a better job and we need to acknowledge that.”

Leclerc wants McLaren-like improvement from Ferrari

Charles Leclerc says the past three races have shown Ferrari is on the back foot and needs to find performance like McLaren has, after a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix. Lando Norris picked up his second consecutive top-two finish in Budapest as …

Charles Leclerc says the past three races have shown Ferrari is on the back foot and needs to find performance like McLaren has, after a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris picked up his second consecutive top-two finish in Budapest as McLaren’s upgrades delivered more impressive performance on a very different type of track to Silverstone. After struggling in Great Britain, Ferrari was again off the pace in Hungary as Leclerc was classified seventh due to a time penalty – ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in eighth – and he says it reinforces the view that the team has slipped back in the pecking order.

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“The pit stop was quite slow, we had a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. so again, that is difficult,” Leclerc said. “Honestly, it’s frustrating overall because I felt that, the pace we had, even as a driver when you are feeling like you are doing a good job with the car you have, nobody really notices it. When you are doing a bad job, everybody notices it.

“It’s difficult but in the end, it’s part of the game and it’s just up to us now to do a step forward as McLaren did. Now we are on the back foot, it’s been confirmed through the last three weekends. There is a lot of work to do.”

Part of the issue for Ferrari is how the car feels to the drivers, with Leclerc insisting he was actually under the impression it was handling well for the majority of Sunday’s race.

“I feel like the result is much worse than what it felt like. The first stint felt pretty good, then with the slow stop it really put us on the back foot behind Lance (Stroll). I had to push a lot, then we were with Carlos and we lost a bit of time there. Then in the third stint, I pushed again and there again, the car felt quite OK. I feel like the result looks a lot worse than what it actually is. But it’s clear that compared to Lando especially, we are still behind.”

There was a positive aspect that Leclerc took away from the Hungaroring, though, as he noted an improvement in terms of tire degradation compared to earlier races in the season.

“Considering how much we were pushing, I don’t think it was that bad. But I don’t want to comment too much on that because to be honest, in the car you’ve only got your own picture,” he said. “I could see with Lewis (Hamilton) in front in the first stint, I felt like we were doing a really good job on tire management.

“The third stint with Oscar (Piastri), I felt like I was doing a really good stint with tire management. But I don’t know what the other three guys at the front were doing.”

Hungary podium a confidence booster for Perez

Sergio Perez admits the boost to his confidence from recovering to third place in the Hungarian Grand Prix was needed as he targets podiums for the rest of the season. Perez reached Q3 in qualifying for the first time since Miami – a run of five …

Sergio Perez admits the boost to his confidence from recovering to third place in the Hungarian Grand Prix was needed as he targets podiums for the rest of the season.

Perez reached Q3 in qualifying for the first time since Miami – a run of five races without doing so – but he still only lined up ninth after a tricky final part of the session. However, in the race, the Mexican pulled off some robust overtaking moves to climb into third place and briefly threaten Lando Norris for second.

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“I think this sort of performance, sort of days, do help,” Perez said of his confidence. “From now on I just look forward to basically be on the podium every single weekend.

“We got close to P2. Unfortunately, we got to a lot of backmarkers. The track was unbelievably dirty off-line, so in the last laps I had some pick-up going through the backmarkers and then yeah, that meant I lost a few seconds, and then I recovered towards the end but it was just too late – but anyway, I think overall it was a great strategy by the team and we managed to have an excellent result.”

Perez had been closing in on Norris in the final stint of the race but then came under pressure from Lewis Hamilton and admits he was struggling with the marbles whenever overtaking slower cars in traffic.

“It was quite difficult because we were going through the backmarkers, Lando and myself, I was chasing Lando, but going offline, I had two very bad laps just cleaning up my tires. And that was when Lewis was coming up, but luckily, they cleaned up and I think towards the end I had him under control.

“We were doing sort of similar (lap times) or a few tenths off, but not enough to be overtaken, so it was good. Unfortunately we pitted on the same lap as (Oscar) Piastri, so I think I had to use my tires a lot harder than I wanted to.”

The Piastri battle saw the Australian rookie fight back around the outside of Turn 2 and end up being run wide by Perez, who admits he had to race the McLaren firmly.

“We were on very similar age tires, basically we pitted at the same lap. So we were on fresh tires, I went for it around the outside. We touched into T1 and then into T2 we touched again. So it was a little bit close but hard racing, I would say.”

Hamilton says he’s not at his best after Hungary ‘reality’ check

Lewis Hamilton says he’s been operating beneath his usual competitive standard despite not having the car to take the fight to the leaders. The Briton beat Max Verstappen to a shock pole by just 0.003s on Saturday to set up a potentially fascinating …

Lewis Hamilton says he’s been operating beneath his usual competitive standard despite not having the car to take the fight to the leaders.

The Briton beat Max Verstappen to a shock pole by just 0.003s on Saturday to set up a potentially fascinating battle, but a slow start opened the door to a bold move on the brakes by the Dutchman to assume the lead into the first corner.

Verstappen went on to claim a 33s victory, the largest since Hamilton won the 2021 Russian Grand Prix by almost a minute. Hamilton eventually trailed home fourth, 39s off the lead.

The 2021 season seemed to be on Hamilton’s mind. It had been the year of his last pole before Saturday and remains the season of his last victory.

“I haven’t been at my best for over a year,” he said on Sunday night. “I think yesterday felt like I was me being back to my best.

“Max got a better start than me. I just got a bit of wheelspin and was a bit compromised after that. I think we may have been able to finish third with a slightly better start, but fourth is still OK.”

Hamilton said his inability to covert pole to podium was just another reminder of how much work Mercedes still has to do to return to contention.

“It’s obvious that we’re not the quickest,” he said. “We don’t have the quickest car.

“I’m really proud of myself and the job that we did yesterday to get pole position, to outperform the world champion and the other two cars that are quicker than us. Today it’s just reality. The reality is we’re not fast enough.”

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Mercedes’ race simulation tools correctly predicted that Red Bull Racing would be too quick to overhaul, but the team had been anticipating a battle with McLaren for a podium spot at least.

Instead, Lando Norris again proved agonizingly out of reach, and while Hamilton was able to beat Oscar Piastri, the Australian was hamstrung by floor damage picked up sometime after his first stint.

“They already told me in strategy this morning I would be at least 0.5s slower than the Red Bulls, so the fight’s not with Max. We were hoping that we could fight the McLarens, but the McLaren was too quick for us,” Hamilton said.

“We were just too slow in the first two stints. The balance was not good, the car was just slow — just the balance of the car shifting through the race. Then the balance picked up a lot at the end and all of a sudden I was able to apply the pressure, but it was too late.”

Teammate George Russell enjoyed a more fruitful race, recovering from 18th to sixth in what he described as a missed opportunity for the team after his qualifying result was ruined by bad timing.

“To come away P6 with no safety car and no VSC, on merit, was a really great result but equally proof that this weekend was probably a missed opportunity,” he said. “I’m confident I could’ve been up there with Lewis yesterday.

“When you’ve got two cars up there fighting for, let’s say, P2, it gives you a lot more options. Lewis was really strong as well, and if things panned out slightly differently, he would’ve been P2 as well.

“As I said, missed opportunity. We’ll learn from it. But the positives are we’re moving ahead of Aston and Ferrari.”

Horner pays tribute to RBR team after record-breaking 12th consecutive win

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has lauded his team for breaking the 35-year-old record for successive victories previously held by McLaren. Max Verstappen’s victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was the 12th in a row for Red Bull …

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has lauded his team for breaking the 35-year-old record for successive victories previously held by McLaren.

Max Verstappen’s victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix was the 12th in a row for Red Bull Racing, dating back to last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, taking it one race clear of McLaren’s 1988 record.

The legendary 1988 McLaren MP4/4 won 11 straight grands prix in an almost perfect season in which Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost combined to claim 15 of 16 race victories.

The benchmark has long appeared to be a seemingly untouchable mark of dominance, with several teams having claimed nine or 10 in success before tasting defeat, including Mercedes in the last decade and Ferrari in 2002.

Horner, who has been team principal of Red Bull Racing since its formation in 2005, said the milestone shouldn’t be understated.

“We achieved history today,” he said. “It’s something very special for the whole team, to achieve the record of 12 consecutive grand prix victories.

“To break that record from 1988 — I remember watching Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and the great McLaren team, at the time led by Ron Dennis. To think it’s taken 35 years but we’re the team that’s managed to break that, particularly with the quality opposition that we’re racing against, is a phenomenal achievement and one that the whole team can be just immensely, immensely proud of.”

Horner also paid tribute to Honda, the team’s engine supplier in all but name, which also powered McLaren to its 1988 feat.

“I think we have to congratulate Honda as well, because they’ve done it twice now,” he said. “They were 35 years apart, but we have to take our hat off to Honda for that contribution for this great result as well.”

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Red Bull Racing has been a Formula 1 frontrunner since it collected its first victory in 2009 and is enjoying its second title-winning spell since. Horner said there was no one reason for the team’s continued success other than the consistent collective pursuit of additional performance.

“The way the team is working, I think it’s all about the details,” he said. “I think we’re leaving no stone unturned at the moment.

“The strategy was strong, the pit stops — today a 1.9s stop the guys put in for Checo, very quick stops again for Max.

“I think you’re seeing the whole team just operating at such a high level. There’s no silver bullet in Formula 1. I think it’s always a culmination of factors that have to come together to achieve these kinds of results.”

The Hungarian Grand Prix was the 11th round of the 22-race season. With Red Bull Racing having claimed all 11 grand prix victories as well as the two sprint victories to date, the prospect of a clean sweep looms as a realistic prospect.

The team has consistently rebuffed suggestions it could maintain a clean sheet as practically impossible given the length of the calendar, and Horner insisted the setting of this latest record hasn’t changed his mind.

“How long can we keep this winning run going? Who knows,” he said. “We’ve got another challenge next weekend — a sprint race, the variable conditions of Spa… Anything can happen. So really we’re just taking it one event at a time.”

If the RB19 is anywhere near as performant as it was in Budapest, where it finished with the largest victory margin since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, it will have little difficulty stretching its victory streak to 13 races and beyond.

“Once (Verstappen) emerged out of that first turn, he really stamped his authority all over the race and really controlled the race from start to finish,” Horner acknowledged.

“Today we had a phenomenal race car and we were able to convert that into a dominant 1-3. The race pace on the Sunday had been very, very strong. That’s where, obviously, the points are, and that’s where we’re focused.”

Verstappen eases to seventh straight victory as Red Bull breaks consecutive wins record

Max Verstappen has won his seventh successive grand prix in a masterclass performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The victory was Red Bull Racing’s 12th in a row, eclipsing the previous record set by McLaren in 1988. Verstappen started second on …

Max Verstappen has won his seventh successive grand prix in a masterclass performance at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The victory was Red Bull Racing’s 12th in a row, eclipsing the previous record set by McLaren in 1988.

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Verstappen started second on the grid alongside pole-getter Lewis Hamilton but wasted no time snatching the lead into the first turn. The Dutchman was daring on the brakes into the hairpin, defying a Hamilton squeeze to emerge from the apex with first place.

Hamilton was then mugged by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, starting fourth and third respectively. The McLaren drivers gave chase to Verstappen, but neither got close enough to contemplate a move, and once the RB19’s tires were up to temperature, the title leader began building a healthy margin.

He was guaranteed to hold the lead after his first stop by a cascade of undercut attempts behind him, but his buffer was large enough to hold first place outright at the second-stop window, and he crossed the line with a dominant 33-second advantage.

“We had a really good start,” he said. “From there onwards I could do my race, and today my car was really quick.

“I think over one lap this weekend was a bit of a struggle, but it was probably a good thing for today. The car was good on any tire, we could look after the tire wear — that’s why we could create such a big gap.

“For the team 12 wins in a row is just incredible. What we’ve been going through the last few years is unbelievable. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going for a long time.”

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Piastri led the field behind Verstappen in the first stint but lost the spot to an undercut from teammate Norris, who McLaren had been worried was vulnerable to an undercut from Hamilton behind.

McLaren attempted to return the undercut favor to the Australian at the second stop, but he got caught behind the slower Carlos Sainz on old tires on his out-lap, neutralizing the advantage and freeing Norris to collect a second-straight second-place finish.

“Another podium for [me] and for McLaren is amazing,” he said. “At the minute I think we’re very happy with the progress we made to from where we were four or five races ago … to fight for poles and fighting for podiums.”

Sergio Perez finished a hard-charging third, up from ninth, in a welcome return to competitiveness.

Perez started on the hard tire and ran long before his first stop before two flat-out second stints on mediums that hauled him up the order. He was fourth after his final stop directly behind Piastri, who he dispatched rapidly for third before charting a course for Norris in second.

The gap was eight seconds with 14 laps to go, but despite strong early progress, his challenge ran out of puff, and he crossed the line third, 3.8s behind Norris for only his second podium finish since May’s Miami Grand Prix.

“It was a great strategy by the team, and we managed to have an excellent result,” he said. “I think this sort of performance, these sorts of days, do help [with my confidence]. From now on I just look forward to basically being on the podium every single weekend, so let’s keep it up.”

Hamilton was a disappointed fourth thanks largely to his poor first lap and a long uncompetitive middle stint on the hard tire. His pace on mediums in the final stint was better, however, and he used a seven-lap tire offset to scythe past Piastri and briefly threaten Perez for third, though he ran out of laps to make a move, crossing the line 1.5 seconds short of a pass.

Piastri finished fourth ahead of George Russell, who completed a mammoth comeback from 18th on the grid thanks to a long opening stint on the hard tire.

Leclerc was demoted from sixth to seventh with a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, placing him just ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz in eighth.

Aston Martin teammates Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll completed the final points-paying places in ninth and 10th.

A major first-lap collision decided much of the bottom 10.

Zhou Guanyu, who started a career-best fifth, appeared to trigger anti-stall at launch, and in his haste to make up ground he went too hot into the first turn and rear-ended Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo ricocheted into Esteban Ocon on his right-hand side, who lost control of his car and struck teammate Pierre Gasly.

Both Alpine cars retired, while Ricciardo and Zhou tumbled down the order, the Chinese driver penalized five seconds for causing the incident.

Alex Albon finished 11th ahead of Valtteri Bottas and the struck Ricciardo. The Australian had gambled his race on a super-long final stint of 40 laps on the medium tire. The early pit stop got him into clear air to get his head down and manage his race pace, which saw him rise from last to 13th, more than 15s ahead of top-10 start Nico Hulkenberg and teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Zhou finished 16th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant, who retired with two laps remaining after a late spin.

RESULTS:

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME
1	1	Max Verstappen	RED BULL HONDA	70	1h38:08.634s
2	4	Lando Norris	McLAREN MERCEDES	70	+33.731s
3	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL HONDA	70	+37.603s
4	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	70	+39.134s
5	81	Oscar Piastri	McLAREN MERCEDES	70	+62.572s
6	63	George Russell	MERCEDES	70	+65.825s
7	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	70	+70.317s
8	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	70	+71.073s
9	14	Fernando Alonso	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	70	+75.709s
10	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	69	+1 lap
11	23	Alexander Albon	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	69	+1 lap
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	69	+1 lap
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	ALPHATAURI HONDA	69	+1 lap
14	27	Nico Hulkenberg	HAAS FERRARI	69	+1 lap
15	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	69	+1 lap
16	24	Zhou Guanyu	ALFA ROMEO FERRARI	69	+1 lap
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	HAAS FERRARI	69	+1 lap
18	2	Logan Sargeant	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	67	DNF
NC	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	2	DNF
NC	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPINE RENAULT	1	DNF

Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. Leclerc received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Ricciardo keeping expectations in check despite strong qualifying performance

Daniel Ricciardo outqualified teammate Yuki Tsunoda at the Hungarian Grand Prix, his first race back in Formula 1, but is keeping expectations in check for what he expects to be a grand prix of difficult lessons. Ricciardo recorded AlphaTauri’s best …

Ricciardo recorded AlphaTauri’s best qualifying result in five races when he put his car 13th on the grid in Budapest, a result that eclipsed all but one of predecessor Nyck de Vries’s Saturday performances.

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It also put him four places ahead of new teammate Tsunoda, who was knocked out of qualifying in Q1, albeit with a time just 0.013s slower than the Australian in a super-tight session.

Ricciardo wasn’t reading too much into the result but admitted the overall picture was positive after just two days back in the car.

“I had no idea where to expect to be on the grid, so the 13th place in a way feel somewhat irrelevant,” he said.

“Of course my reference is Yuki for now, and I think he’s also – watching from the outside – a good reference, not only this year but I think already the second half of last year I could see with Pierre (Gasly) he was starting to be a lot more competitive.

“Whether I’m ahead or behind, I think just to be there is positive for me.”

The Australian said he had developed a clear picture of where he needed to pick up his game after a disrupted Friday practice session and rated himself at 98 per cent of his potential by Saturday afternoon.

“I felt pretty comfortable,” he said. “Yesterday we only really got one session. I was a bit off the pace, but I kind of knew where I was missing, and it was quite self-explanatory where I could find the pace.

“I improved those today. I think everything I had to improve last night I was able to improve.

“We can probably all of us get to 95 per cent quite easily at this level. It’s then those last few per cent. I think I found a little bit in quali, but for sure there’s still a little bit more.

“I got it close to 100 per cent – maybe 98 – so I took a nice step.”

But the Perth native’s 10-race absence from the grid is likely to tell on Sunday, when he completes his first grand prix distance in almost eight months in a car he drove for the first time only on Friday.

Though he wasn’t willing to set a formal target for the race, he said he was anticipating a more difficult afternoon focused on learning rather than pushing forwards towards the points.

“I’ve done probably only an eight-lap run or something at the moment,” he said of his limited race experience in the AlphaTauri. “I think tomorrow there’s going to be a lot of things for me to learn in terms of tire management but also the car with fuel, as the tires go off.

“I’ll start to probably discover a bit more about the car and obviously then in those conditions the weaknesses. I think there’ll probably be laps where I’m maybe not doing too great but then there’ll be laps where I’ll be doing better because I’m learning as I go.

“I don’t want to say that negatively, but inevitably there’s going to be still a handful of things to pick up on. Hopefully I can be a fast learner.

“If we can find our way into the points, that would be huge. I think for now obviously as a team we need to get points, but it’s really just making sure that I’m on top of the car, at one with the car, and then that’s the first box I need to tick.”

Sunday result pending, there’s already a sense that Ricciardo has rediscovered his old mojo and that his AlphaTauri stint is likely to restore at least some of his pre-McLaren reputation.

The Aussie credited his solid comeback showing to his half-year sabbatical, which he said helped him to rediscover his confidence after two bruising seasons at Woking.

“If we even forget the result today, just the way I feel, I just feel a bit lighter and a bit more bubbly, kind of like myself,” he said. “I was driving a bit more with a smile.

“[The break] was very, very good for me. Maybe not everyone needs it, but for me I felt like it was really good at that time of my career.

“Of course I’m a race car driver, so I’m always going to expect something out of myself, but truthfully I was really trying to remove as much of that as I could and make sure that this is the place that makes me feel like myself again.

“Jumping in the car in qualifying, I felt actually really relaxed. Not to take it lightly, but just happy – happy to be back and happy to be able to push the car on the limit again.

“I felt like I had enough time to fall back in love.”

Verstappen eyeing Hungarian GP victory after ‘terrible’ qualifying

Max Verstappen thinks his Saturday weakness could be a Sunday strength after missing out on pole by just 0.003s with chronic balance problems. Since he first got in the car on Friday, Verstappen has looked uncomfortable with the set-up of his …

Max Verstappen thinks his Saturday weakness could be a Sunday strength after missing out on pole by just 0.003s with chronic balance problems.

Since he first got in the car on Friday, Verstappen has looked uncomfortable with the set-up of his upgraded Red Bull Racing machine. He regularly radioed his team during practice to ask if there was a problem with his car to explain its seemingly random handling behavior, notwithstanding the weekend’s blustery conditions.

Budapest fans were subsequently treated to the rare sight of the Dutchman having to set a banker lap in Q2 after having an earlier lap deleted for exceeding track limits. RBR sent him onto the track out of sync with the rest of the field to ensure the lap was clean, an unusually cautious approach for the runaway championship leader.

His car problems exacted maximum pain in Q3 when he was unable to improve on his provisional-pole time with his second lap, leaving him vulnerable to Hamilton’s response.

“Terrible,” Verstappen responded when asked how his car felt. “The whole qualifying I’ve been struggling a lot — all weekend really — with a shifting balance. It was just never in a good window.

“There’s not much you can do…once you go into qualifying. Every time I got the apex of the corner it was just not gripping up for me. That’s probably the worst balance I can have in a car.

“I tried to correct a few things in Q3, but there’s only so much you can do.”

Verstappen explained his biggest problem was understeer, though the car’s response varied as he progressed through the qualifying segments.

“I thought my first (Q3) lap wasn’t too bad. It still felt like driving on ice on the front axle. Just very peaky. Then in the second lap, already the first sector was just off. Then I just risked a bit more in sector two, which paid off, but then in the last sector I, again, lost the front.

“It was really inconsistent and difficult to be progressive through qualifying. It was just hit and miss all the time.”

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The runaway title leader was cautiously optimistic the problems that afflicted his qualifying pace might actually work to his benefit in the grand prix, though he expected to have a fight on his hands.

“I think today we just lacked a bit, but that’s over one lap,” he said. “Tomorrow’s going to be even warmer. With the balance I had toady, that’s probably not a bad thing.

“I don’t expect it to be a very straightforward race. I expect us to be quick, but around here it’s not easy to pass, especially when you’re quite closely matched in pace. When (Mercedes are) up front in qualifying, normally their race car is also quite strong.”

Red Bull Racing brought a major update package to the Hungaroring weekend in what was billed as a precursor to a potentially crushing step forward for the already-dominant RB19. Instead, the car has fallen back into the clutches of the lower frontrunners.

Verstappen said there was no correlation between the new parts and the unexpected loss of pole, pointing only to missed set-up opportunities for creating a gap between the Red Bull and Hamilton.

“The upgrade looks good. We just didn’t nail the balance of the car, simple as that,” he said. “We tried quite a few things but we just didn’t do the right thing in the end.

“Sometimes it happens. I think, so far, for most of the year, we’ve actually nailed it. For basically all the qualifyings, I was always quite happy.

“Sometimes it doesn’t work out. That’s how it goes. You cannot always be perfect — I know that. But I want to always try and be as close as possible to perfection.”

Hamilton praises ‘night and day’ Hungarian GP pole performance

Lewis Hamilton has praised the overnight work of his team to turn the car’s lackluster Friday pace into a surprise pole-setting performance. Mercedes ended Friday practice anchored to the bottom of the time sheet, with Hamilton 16th and teammate …

Lewis Hamilton has praised the overnight work of his team to turn the car’s lackluster Friday pace into a surprise pole-setting performance.

Mercedes ended Friday practice anchored to the bottom of the time sheet, with Hamilton 16th and teammate George Russell last. While the raw times were due to neither driver using the soft tire, Hamilton described the car as being “at its worst” at a track he has historically dominated.

“It’s night and day different today,” he said. “Literally we turned it up on its head. Yesterday the car felt terrible. The balance was all over the place. It was very, very difficult to extract any performance from it.”

Work overnight on the Mercedes simulator in the UK delivered setup changes that reversed the team’s fortunes and put Hamilton in pole contention.

“What we do best is we work hard through the night,” he added. “The team works hard on the simulator, and we get a new direction on the Saturday. We made some really great changes to the car last night and it put us in a much better window, so I was then able to just build on that.”

Combined with Max Verstappen’s struggles with balance in his Red Bull, it was enough for Hamilton to snatch pole by a super-fine 0.003s.

“I started to get this confidence back today,” Hamilton said. “Today was a fun day, when you can really throw it into the corners and know that it’s going to just about stick with you.

“It was definitely still a fight through the lap. I think we still lack rear end — that’s our weakest point — but today it definitely was fun.”

Hamilton said the changes had given him enough faith in the car to reach for pole when he would otherwise have been more cautious.

“Once we got to Q2 it was looking quite decent all of a sudden,” he said. Then once we got to Q3 we were only a tenth off Max, and I knew I had more time I could find in the car.

“The car was just not quite up to it on the previous laps, but at the last point I just had to send it and hope I stayed on the track.

“What a feeling — an uplifting feeling — for everyone in the team.”

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Hamilton’s 104th pole is his first P1 start since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and his first front-row qualification since that year’s title-deciding race in Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes has struggled for competitiveness since then, claiming only one pole and win, both at the hands of George Russell last season.

The seven-time champion hinted that the drought had taken a mental toll on him, particularly given the way the 2021 campaign ended with his championship defeat.

“It’s an extraordinary feeling after you’ve been here for such a long time and you’ve had the success before,” he said. “Even though it’s 104 it feels like the first. It’s hard to explain how special it feels.

“I’m just so happy and happy for everyone in the team. It’s been a really, really difficult year and a half on a personal level, but then as a team collectively — so many ideas and trying to find the right path to be on and continue to have the motivation with everyone and keep everyone driven. That’s been the challenge for all of us. This is a team effort. The team deserves this today.”

Hamilton’s qualifying success set a new record for most poles at single grand prix, with nine Hungarian P1 starts.

Converting pole to victory will likewise see him break new ground for success at a single venue, with nine victories — unprecedented for one driver at one track.

The Briton was cautiously optimistic that Mercedes had a route to the top step of the podium.

“Normally it’s not a bad race car,” he said. “We tend to have decent race pace. Max’s race pace yesterday was, I think, quite extraordinary. I think they were quite a bit quicker than us.

“If there’ s a way to hold position, then maybe there’s a fighting chance for us. Just even being up there in the top three — we’re going to have a great race for sure.”

Hamilton snatches first pole since 2021 in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton has set a new record for most poles at one racetrack by pinching the fastest time from Max Verstappen in a thrilling qualifying hour at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The fight for pole was delicately poised at the end of the first laps of …

Lewis Hamilton has set a new record for most poles at one racetrack by pinching the fastest time from Max Verstappen in a thrilling qualifying hour at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The fight for pole was delicately poised at the end of the first laps of Q3. Verstappen had strung together a lap for provisional pole, but his advantage was a slender 0.126s ahead of Hamilton.

The Dutchman has been unhappy with the balance of his Red Bull machine all weekend, and that discomfort was evident at several moments throughout qualifying. He lost a lap in Q2 to track limits, forcing him to burn through a second set of tires. But the greatest cost came on his final in Q3 when he attempted to seal the deal for pole. Verstappen failed to improve on his first lap, falling short of his personal bests in the first and last sectors, gifting the initiative to former title rival Hamilton.

The Briton seized his opportunity with a slick lap comprising three green splits to pip the Dutchman by a slender 0.003s. It was Hamilton’s ninth pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix, a new record for most poles at a single track. The previous record of eight was jointly held Michael Schumacher in Japan and Ayrton Senna in San Marino. Hamilton also has eight poles in Australia.

“It’s been a crazy year and a half,” Hamilton said, reflecting on the almost 20 months since his last pole, at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “I’ve lost my voice from shouting so much in the car. It’s amazing, that feeling.

“We’ve been pushing so hard over this time. To finally get that pole, it feels like the first time.

“I didn’t expect coming today that we’d be fighting for pole. When I went into that last run I gave it absolutely everything. There was nothing left in it.”

Verstappen was despondent following his narrow defeat, lamenting that the team hasn’t been able to set up the car for this track all weekend.

“I’ve been struggling all weekend to find a good balance,” he said. “Every session has been up and down. Today in qualifying was also very difficult to be confident to attack corners.

“We’re still second, but we should be ahead with the car we have normally. So far this weekend we haven’t been on it.”

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Lando Norris came close to compound Verstappen’s disappointment with a strong final lap that put him just 0.082s further back in third. It was a big tick for McLaren’s aerodynamic overhaul of recent rounds, so much so that Norris was himself disappointed to not snatch pole position.

“Within a tenth of pole — it feels like you should be on pole if you put the lap together,” Norris said. “As a driver I’m not the happiest. I made too many mistakes, and that cost me today.

“P3 is still a good position for tomorrow. It’s still a good day.”

Norris was backed up by teammate Oscar Piastri in fourth, 0.211s further back, making McLaren the only team to get two cars in the top five.

Zhou Guanyu qualified a career-best fifth on a competitive weekend for Alfa Romeo, pipping Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.021s. Alfa teammate Valtteri Bottas followed in seventh.

Fernando Alonso was only eighth quickest for Aston Martin and 0.426s off the pace, but he managed to beat Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull Racing car by 0.01s. Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 on a strong day in his Haas machine.

Qualifying was run to an alternative format this weekend, with drivers required to use hard tires in Q1 and mediums in Q2. Most teams struggled to find a setup that preserved a good balance on all three compounds, and the biggest losers were Carlos Sainz, who was knocked out in 11th, and George Russell, who was eliminated in 18th.

Alpine suffered a double Q2 elimination, with Esteban Ocon out in 12th and Pierre Gasly out in 15th. The lower placed Frenchman had his final time deleted for track limits, but that lap would have gained him only on place on the grid.

Daniel Ricciardo qualified 13th in his comeback race and will started four places ahead of AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Lance Stroll will line up 14th for Aston Martin, while Alex Albon was knocked out 16th ahead of Tsunoda, who were 0.011s and 0.013s short of the cut-off time respectively.

Last year’s polesitter Russell will start 18th after a poor final lap hampered by traffic. The Briton lamented traffic in the final corners of his preparation lap that left him with tires not up to temperature, which cost him crucial time in the first sector and cascaded into losses around the rest of the lap.

Kevin Magnussen will start 19th ahead of Logan Sargeant, whose scruffy last lap saw him hopping over the curbs.