Briton George Russell (Mercedes) took his first pole position in Formula 1 on Saturday in qualifying for the Hungarian GP, ahead of Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari), the leader of the World Championship, Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) only doing better than 10th.
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Russell also offers Mercedes its first pole of the season after a difficult start to the year for the reigning world champion team.
The second line of the 13th round of the season goes to Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 3rd, ahead of Briton Lando Norris (McLaren).
The Alpines of Frenchman Esteban Ocon – who scored the first victory of his F1 career in Hungary in 2021 – and Spaniard Fernando Alonso will start from the third row.
They are followed by Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 7th, Finn Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), 8th, and Australian Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), 9th.
Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), solid leader in the championship, will only start 10th on the Hungaroring track, near Budapest.
After 12 out of 22 races, Verstappen is 63 points ahead of Leclerc, his pursuer. The Monegasque notably lost big in France last weekend, when he was leading the race, after going off the track due to pilot error.
On the Hungaroring, a short and tortuous circuit not conducive to overtaking, it will therefore be time for revenge for the Scuderia driver, determined to leave Hungary, the last GP before the summer break, with the smallest possible gap. on his Dutch rival, reigning world champion.
Lance Stroll stops in Q2
Quebec driver Lance Stroll successfully completed the first stage of qualifying (Q1), then finishing in 14th position in Q2.
Sebastian Vettel, who is his teammate at Aston Martin, was among the first five drivers dismissed along with Yuki Tsunoda, Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly and Nicholas Latifi. In the second stage of qualifying, gathering 15 cars, only Mick Schumacher (Haas) was slower than Stroll, who clocked 1 min. 19.137 sec.
More details will follow…
