Seven-times World champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, who handed Mercedes a front-row lockout in Saturday’s qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
He lapped the 4.3km of a sweltering Hungaroring in one minute, 15.419 seconds, 0.315 seconds quicker than Bottas. Crucially, he was 0.421s quicker than Red Bull title rival Max Verstappen in third.
“I think its been amazing teamwork from everyone this weekend,” said Hamilton, after chalking up his 101st career pole and first in six races.
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“It’s been amazing to see everyone coming together, rallying up and pushing forward,” the Briton, gunning for a 100th win and record ninth at the circuit on Sunday, added.
Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by eight points in the overall standings, was disappointed to miss out on a fifth successive pole.
“Clearly, the whole weekend so far we’ve been a bit behind and it showed again in qualifying,” said the 23-year-old, whose rivalry with Hamilton stepped up a gear after a collision with the Mercedes driver put him out of the last race in Britain.
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The hour-long session was briefly halted in the second phase when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz spun off into the barriers at the last corner.
The Spaniard, fourth in the opening part of qualifying on a strong weekend for the Maranello-based squad, will start 15th.
Starting grid: Front row: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes); Second row: Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Sergio Perez (Red Bull); Third row: Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Lando Norris (McLaren); Fourth row: Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Esteban Ocon (Alpine); Fifth row: Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin); Sixth row: Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).
Seventh row: Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo), Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo); Eighth row: Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri); Ninth row: George Russell (Williams), Nicholas Latifi (Williams); 10th row: Nikita Mazepin (Haas), Mick Schumacher (Haas) .