Hungary: Norris storms to pole ahead of Piastri

McLaren driver Lando Norris secured pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix in a thriller that was only a hundredth of a second away. Max Verstappen had to settle for third place.

July 20, 2024

From: apa

The 24-year-old Briton secured first place on the grid for Sunday's Grand Prix (1 p.m.) in the Formula 22 qualifying session on Saturday at the Hungaroring, with a narrow lead of 16.00 thousandths of a second over his teammate Oscar Piastri. World champion Max Verstappen (+0,046 seconds) had to settle for third place in the Red Bull.

Before qualifying, a short rain shower in Mogyorod created exciting conditions. Sergio Perez, who had been under criticism, lost his Red Bull car in the first qualifying session, crashed into the wall in drying conditions and had to settle for a disappointing 16th place on the grid.

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko recently stressed that Perez still has two races before the summer break in Hungary and Belgium to secure his Red Bull cockpit with a performance upgrade.

Sergio Perez's Red Bull. © ANSA / Zsolt Czegledi

Since overtaking maneuvers are a difficult undertaking on the traditional circuit just outside Budapest, Perez has his back against the wall again after six poor Grand Prix results in a row. Spielberg winner George Russell was also disappointed, not managing to get past 17th place in his Mercedes. After Perez's interruption, there were just under seven minutes left on the clock, but Russell didn't have enough fuel in the tank to do enough laps on the increasingly faster track.

In the World Championship standings, Verstappen, who is aiming for his third consecutive victory in Hungary, leads Norris by 84 points before the start of the second half of the season. The two Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are already 105 and 109 points behind respectively after twelve races.