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Norris back on pole at Hungarian GP as rivals handed penalties

motorsport25 July 2026 19:18| © AFP
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World champion Lando Norris of McLaren narrowly outpaced Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton on Saturday to seize his first pole position of the year for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix before the Briton and championship leader Kimi Antonelli were handed penalties.

The 26-year-old Briton clocked a best lap of one minute and 17.207 seconds to wreck Hamilton's bid for pole by just 0.012 seconds with Charles Leclerc qualifying third in the second Ferrari before the grid for Sunday's race in Budapest was rearranged by the race commissioners.

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World championship leader Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes was originally fourth, 0.260 seconds adrift, ahead of Oscar Piastri in the second McLaren and four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

"I am very happy to be back on top," said a beaming Norris.

"It was a tough session and these guys (Ferrari) were very quick. It's been tough all weekend, but we have been quick and our upgrades have helped – it's so nice to be on pole especially at this track."

Hamilton had been within reach of becoming the oldest pole-sitter since Mario Andretti at the 1982 Italian Grand Prix while for Norris it was a second Budapest pole and the 17th of his career, his most recent coming in Las Vegas in November.

The 41-year-old was found guilty of impeding McLaren rival Oscar Piastri during his final slowdown lap and drops down to fifth.

"Congratulations to Lando," said Hamilton. "I think we did a great job all weekend and we were solid in qualifying, but going out first was not the right call. On top of that, the grip just wasn't there for Charles and I at the end.

"We were quickest, but it got away from us ultimately."

Leclerc said: "There was quite a bit of wind change today and I didn't anticipate it well. It was all a bit messy."

Antonelli will start at seventh after failing to slow down enough under a yellow flag.

The session began in hot conditions with a track temperature of 52C as Valtteri Bottas led the way in his Cadillac followed by his team's main rivals, both Williams and the Aston Martin duo in their updated 'B-spec' cars.

Ferrari sent both cars out on mediums and Hamilton promptly set the pace in 1:18.730 ahead of Leclerc before the Monegasque's lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.

The rest took softs with Norris topping Verstappen and Antonelli ahead of Hamilton while elsewhere Aston Martin had a reason to be cheerful with Alonso in 16th and into Q2 for the first time this year.

Out went both Cadillacs, both Williams, Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin and Haas's Oliver Bearman.

"That was terrible," said Williams' Alex Albon.

"Why is the balance changing so much?"

Alonso, on used softs, was first out for Q2, but was half a second slower as Hadjar, who had called his car "undriveable" during FP3, spun at turn 12 before Hamilton, on softs, posted 1:17.931 to take control, two-tenths clear of a grumpy Antonelli.

Amazingly, Alonso went 10th before Hadjar, back out after a pit-stop, went top only to be pushed off by Norris as Leclerc squeezed through behind him with a lap in the final seconds.

Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls, the two Alpines, Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon of Haas and Alonso, ultimately 16th, were eliminated.

The top-10 shootout began with Hamilton seizing provisional pole in 1:17.219 to beat Norris by a tenth ahead of Leclerc and Antonelli after their first flying laps.

Hamilton and Leclerc led out for their second runs, but were unable to improve as, behind them, Verstappen spun his Red Bull at turn 13 to prompt yellow flags that affected several following cars, but not the McLaren of Norris.

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