It was a bit of a chaotic qualifying session, as both Sergio Pérez and Yuki Tsunoda caused red flags with their respective crashes, added to the continuous threat of rain throughout the session. It didn’t stop Lando Norris from grabbing his third career pole position, and McLaren’s first front-row lock-out since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, as teammate Oscar Piastri came just two one-hundreths shy of grabbing pole himself.
Max Verstappen’s main contender in this part of the season was obviously very chuffed with his efforts, as the Hungaroring is traditionally tricky to overtake on.
“Very, very happy. Not an easy qualifying, different conditions […], but always ending up on top, the best part of it all.
“So, happy, especially for the team. A 1-2 is even better to see, so congrats to the team.”
Coming from the back of the field at the start of 2023, the Woking outfit has fought themselves back to the top of Formula 1, which means the team is boosting with confidence.
“I mean it does, but we’ve already got confidence, so it’s not like we need a lot more of it or we’re searching for it, you know. I think we’ve come into this weekend and the last few happy and confident that we can do a good job and we have a good car to fight for pole and that’s exactly what we did today.
“So yeah, like I said, a great job by the team. We’ve been improving every weekend and to end up on pole today is sweet.”
With the Saturday being the coolest day of the weekend, a lot warmer circumstances are predicted for the race tomorrow, something that might pose the question whether the current form will translate to a good race pace tomorrow.
“We’re in the best position for whatever the conditions throw at us,” Norris confidently said. “So I’m looking forward to it. Two cars at the front row, we can control it from there. So as long as we stay where we are, we’ll be happy.”
Coming home second in last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix Norris obviously aims to do better, especially after starting from pole.
“I’m expecting to [do one better], so if I don’t it’s not been a good day. Now the car’s doing well, I feel like I’m driving well, so it’s obvious what the aim is for tomorrow.”
