Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying: Lando Norris denies Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes and Red Bull flop
F1 NewsSaturday, 25 July 2026 at 17:00
Lando Norris took pole for the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix denying Lewis Hamilton with a last minute effort by the slightest of margins as Charles Leclerc was third.
The reigning Formula 1 Champion put his upgraded McLaren MCL40 to good use and managed to beat Hamilton and take his 17th career pole position.
Ferrari on the other hand looked really good for pole, and Hamilton was on provisional pole after the first runs of Q3 but, inexplicably, could not improve on his final run, which was also the case for Leclerc.
Hamilton ended up missing out on pole by a painful 0.012s and Leclerc was 0.226s behind his teammate.
However, Hamilton will have to face the stewards after Qualifying as he will be investigated for blocking Oscar Piastri.
Kimi Antonelli, who will also be investigated for ignoring the Yellow flag when Max Verstappen spun was fourth fastest, 0.272s off the pace.
Piastri was over four tenths off the pace in fifth, the Australian not running the same upgraded spec as his teammate in the pole sitting McLaren.
Verstappen was livid over the radio after spinning calling his car aerodynamically broken and having to settle for sixth ahead of a struggling George Russell who was seventh, over half a second off the pace.
Isack Hadjar was eighth in the other Red Bull ahead of a superb Arvid Lindblad who was ninth while Nico Hulkenberg was tenth in the Audi.
Worth noting that Fernando Alonso made it into Q2 and was as high as tenth at one point but dropped to 16th when the dust settled.
But the Spaniard can be content not to start from the back of the grid for a change.
What the top three said
Norris said after Qualifying: "Very happy to be back on top. A tough qualifying.
"These guys [Ferrari] were very quick. It's been tight the whole weekend but we seemed quick from the first laps we did and we brought a few upgrades.
"It's hard to know how much it helps in terms of lap time but it certainly helped today. Very happy to be back on top, especially at a track where you certainly want to be on pole," the Briton added.
Hamilton added: "Firstly congratulations to Lando, it was a great lap. We have been doing a great job all weekend.
"I felt solid throughout qualifying and, for some reason, we went out first, which I don't think was the right call.
"But then, on top of that, just the grip for some reason wasn't there on that last lap for both Charles and I.
"It's obviously a track that I love. We're obviously competitive but I think tomorrow is going to be a hard day," the seven-time Formula 1 Champion concluded.
Leclerc blamed wing change for Ferrari's performance drop, he commented: "There was quite a bit of a wind change and I don't think I did a great job anticipating it with the car setup.
"I felt a little bit off from this morning, then qualifying was quite messy. We were unlucky in Q2 with the yellow flag, then we were playing catch up but the pace was never to the level of Lewis.
"It was all about maximizing today and I felt I kind of did it," the Monegasque concluded.
Q1: Alonso into Q2 for a change!
Q1 started in clear conditions with track temperature at 49 degrees Celsius with air temperature in the region of 27 degrees.A
Aston Martin, Cadillac, and Williams sent their drivers out first as the green light was on at the end of the pitlane.
Carlos Sainz had an off and while he completed it, it was deleted for being off track limits.
Ferrari were the first team from the top four to send their drivers out as Hamilton went on to post the fastest lap on Medium which was the case for Leclerc who has his lap time deleted for track limits and had to go again.
And Lewis goes P1 early on in Q1 with a 1:18.730s šŖ#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/e4icL5V1kL
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 25, 2026
Then Verstappen bounced to the top as Antonelli took second with Russell fifth which Piastri soon took from him.
The Norris came along and went fastest with the order after the first run: Norris - Verstappen - Antonelli - Hamilton - Hadjar - Piastri - Russell - Liam Lawson - Leclerc - Lindblad - Hulkenberg - Alonso - Franco Colapinto - Esteban Ocon - Pierre Gasly - Lance Stroll.
ā¬ļø IN THE Q1 DROP ZONE ā¬ļø
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 25, 2026
Bearman šø
Albon
Sainz
Bottas
Perez
Bortoleto
Visor down š One more chance to improve ā±ļø#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/l4TvJW8WnD
Gabriel Bortoleto had no lap time since his was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 4.
With less than four minutes remaining, the second runs of Q1 began and in the end, and Norris who did not bother to run again was fastest with a 1:18.277, 0.277s faster than Antonelli is second as Verstappen was third fastest.
The rest of the top 16 were: Hamilton - Hadjar - Hulkenberg - Russell - Piastri - Leclerc - Bortoleto - Lawson - Lindblad - Gasly - Colapinto - Ocon - Alonso.
The drivers eliminated from Q1 were led by Oliver Bearman who lost out to Alonso by 0.107s and was 17th.
Sainz was 18th in the Williams ahead of Albon who was 19th in the sister car as Stroll was 20th.
The two Cadillacs of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez were 21st and 22nd respectively.
Q2: Alonso's journey ends in 16th
Alonso was the first driver to leave the pits in his Aston Martin to kick off the action in Q2 as other drivers followed him out a couple of minutes later.
Verstappen was the first of the big boys to start a flying lap and went to the top beating Alonso's time which was the first that went up on the timing screens.
Then Hadjar brought out the Yellow flags after spinning into Turn 12 but managed to rejoin.
Hadjar has spun off at Turn 11 šµš«
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 25, 2026
Touch and go for Isack to get into Q3 now #F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/BKKg8rTx0G
Leclerc then posted the second fastest time while Norris took that from him as Lindblad slotted into third. Piastri was fifth.
The came Antonelli and took first position, 0.071s faster than Verstappen as Russell was fourth.
But Hamilton delivered a massive lap with a purple third sector to go 0.247s faster than Antonelli who was complaining about lack of grip.
The order: Hamilton - Antonelli - Verstappen - Norris - Russell - Lindblad - Leclerc - Piastri - Lawson - Hulkenberg.
In the drop zone: Gasly - Colapinto - Ocon - Alonso - Hadjar - Bortoleto.
Bortoleto did not have a lap time as he aborted his lap with Hadjar's whoes spin meant he didn't have a lap time as well.
Fresh set of soft tyres for Fernando...
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 25, 2026
And he goes P10 š#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/4ZNNUz9Lfw
Alonso went first for his second run and managed to improve to tenth, 1.877 off the top time, but that did not last long as Hadjar dropped him to 11th, the Frenchman going fastest.
Then it was revealed that Antonelli's lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 7.
In the end, Norris posted the fastest time of Q2, a 1:17.456, 0.170s ahead of Leclerc in second with Hamilton third fastest.
The rest of the top ten: Hadjar - Piastri - Verstappen - Lindblad - Antonelli - Russell - Lindblad.
Out of Qualifying were: Lawson - Gasly - Colapinto - Bortoleto - Ocon - Alonso.
Q3: Verstappen spins!
Verstappen led the two McLarens out on track as Hadjar followed them as Q3 was underway.
Verstappen was struggling to keep the car on track in sector one and was advised to work his tyres harder and he was the first driver to start a timed lap as Piastri and Norris followed.
Verstappen went fastest momentarily with Piastri going ahead of him as Norris went even faster despite a couple of correction in the final corner. Hadjar was fourth.
Then Hamilton came through and went to the top as Leclerc followed into third with Antonelli fourth while Russell was only seventh.
Lewis takes provisional pole! šŖ
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 25, 2026
TOP 10 after the first Q3 runs
Hamilton
Norris
Leclerc
Antonelli
Piastri
Verstappen
Russell
Hadjar
Lindblad
Hulkenberg#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/lsiFFMVsae
The final runs were on with less the three minutes on the clock with Norris and Piastri the last two drivers to come out on track.
Hamilton started his final attempt first but had a scruffy lap and could not improve which also applied to Leclerc as Verstappen spun with Antonelli in his wake but managed to improve and stay fourth.
But Norris came in and took pole from Hamilton by one hundredth of a second as Piastri could not run again.
The final order of Q3: Norris - Hamilton - Leclerc - Antonelli - Piastri - Verstappen - Russell - Hadjar - Lindblad - Hulkenberg.
Russell had to park his car on the side of the road after his engineer instructed him to do so.
Hamilton was under investigation for a potential block on Piastri while Antonello will be investigated for ignoring the Yellow flag from Verstappen's spin.
Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Provisional Classification
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