Lewis Hamilton was dealt a damaging blow to his bid for a record eighth world championship after he was demoted to fifth on the grid for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton had looked on course to end his 1,099-day wait for a pole position as he led the way into the decisive qualifying laps only to be usurped by Lando Norris by just 0.012 seconds.
Hamilton was then served a further setback after he was sanctioned with a three-place grid penalty at 1836 local time (1736 BST) – over 90 minutes after the end of qualifying.
The seven-time world champion was deemed guilty of blocking Oscar Piastri at the opening corner as the McLaren driver geared up for a quick lap. Ferrari failed to tell Hamilton about the oncoming Piastri and the mistake could be costly in the 41-year-old’s title tilt.
Instead of starting two places clear of championship rival Kimi Antonelli, who he trails by 45 points in the standings, he will now line up two places behind him at a circuit where overtaking is predicted to be difficult at best, and impossible at worst.
“I was told literally (told by the team) when he was at the apex behind me,” said Hamilton prior to the stewards’ verdict. “I didn’t know he was coming. I thought everyone had finished their lap. It wasn’t intentional.”
Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur conceded that team was at fault for Hamilton’s punishment.
Antonelli also attracted the stewards’ attention on the charge of failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags following Isack Hadjar’s last-corner spin.
Hamilton claimed his 105th and last pole at this venue three years ago and he held an advantage of 0.101 sec prior to the deciding runs in Q3. However, he could not improve on his time to leave the door ajar to the chasing pack.
Leclerc failed to improve and although Antonelli did go quicker, he remained in fourth, before Norris danced around the final corner to secure pole by the smallest of margins.
Norris was among the last drivers to cross the line after Ferrari elected to send both Hamilton and Leclerc out first.
And a disgruntled Hamilton said: “I don’t know why we went first. That was a shock to me. I definitely wouldn’t have chosen to do it that way.
“We had the car to be on pole and I did not deliver and that is tough to swallow.”
Further back, George Russell – already 50 points behind Antonelli – could lose further ground. He lines up from seventh as his title assault threatens to combust.
Russell’s campaign has been blighted by reliability problems and he stopped on track with another failure – this time a water leak – moments after he completed his last lap.
Mercedes had been on pole at all of the nine previous rounds but they have not excelled at this twisty circuit on the outskirts of Budapest.
The same cannot be said of Norris, who, in his revised McLaren, will hope to follow up the first pole of his championship defence with his first win.
“How was it? It was good enough for pole but not my finest lap,” he said. “It was a difficult to put a lap together here that’s for sure. But I am very happy to be here again on pole. It’s been a while.”
