A big cheer and then Lewis Hamilton was left shaking his head. He seemed to have taken pole and then didn’t. That honour was snatched from him by Lando Norris with a late and skilled ambush.
That is how it transpired as Hamilton thought he had done what he had not managed for three years, taken pole – the cheer. He pulled into parc ferme next to the marker with No 1 on it.
Norris was still out on track and piecing together his smooth assault on the top, a chance he was gifted by Hamilton being unable to improve on his first run that had temporarily put him first – the head shake.
Worse possibly lies in store. Hamilton has been called to the stewards for apparently blocking Norris’s team-mate Oscar Piastri inadvertently.
Barely any driver was conjuring extra speed in the final stages, bar Norris, who pipped Hamilton by 0.012sec to claim the first pole of his title defence. The No 1 marker was moved by officialdom in front of the world champion’s McLaren. No 2 was placed by the red car.
Subject to the stewards intervening, Hamilton has a great chance to win Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, on a track he loves and where he has prevailed a record eight times. His car is fastest, a point he believes he could have underlined other than for Ferrari’s wonks sending him out early.
Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated after having pole position snatched away at the 11th hour
Reigning champion Lando Norris roared through to claim his first pole of the year by 0.012s
‘We have been doing a great job all weekend,’ he said, slow to raise much cheer in the immediate aftermath. ‘I felt solid throughout qualifying and, for some reason, we went out first, which I don’t think was the right call.
‘And for some reason the grip wasn’t there on that last lap.
‘We’re obviously competitive but I think tomorrow is going to be a hard day.’
In a boost to the British veteran, who lies second in the drivers’ standings, 45 points behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, the Silver Arrows looked a shadow of their formerly dominant selves.
Indeed, this was the first time this campaign that neither of the Mercedes had set the qualifying pace. Instead, Hamilton’s team-mate Charles Leclerc was third fastest with Antonelli fourth.
George Russell, in the other Mercedes, was only seventh quickest, his championship dream increasingly bleak. Fifty points off the top, he had to abandon his car, a water leak having sprung his latest dose of bad luck.
Aston Martin showed a glimmer of hope in their long road back from a start to the season team principal Adrian Newey called a ‘complete nightmare’.
They brought 16 upgrades to Budapest. The rest of the grid have 21 between them, a measure of Aston’s kitchen-sink approach to finding a solution. It resulted in Fernando Alonso managing to break the team’s 2026 duck by progressing into Q2 and qualifying 16th. His team-mate Lance Stroll, however, was only 20th fastest, just ahead of the two Cadillacs.
