Formula 1 ®
Max’s new favorite song is “Oh the Memories” McLaren lock out the front row and Lando is on a mission from god to take the fight to Mr. V and win win win!
BUDAPEST (AP) — Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the Hungarian Grand Prix front row ahead of Formula 1 leader Max Verstappen after a stellar qualifying session for the British team on Saturday.
Norris scored his third career pole position, and will have his teammate starting right behind him as he aims for a second win of the season. Norris won in Miami in May and has come close to another victory with four podium finishes since then. He took pole in Spain last month and in Russia in 2021.
“We’ve come into this weekend and the last few confident we can fight for pole,” Norris said. “We are in the best position for whatever the conditions throw at us.”
The Hungarian GP marks the start of the second half of the season, which looks set to be much more hotly contested than the opening races.
Verstappen, who will start from third on the grid, has won at the Hungaroring the past two years despite not starting from pole. He won 2022 from a 10th-place start.
But the Dutchman had no problem acknowledging McLaren is providing Red Bull with its stiffest test of the past three seasons. Norris topped practice on Friday and earlier Saturday before showing his dominance when it mattered.
Max…
“I was a bit frustrated we ended up with P3 today, but showing emotion shows I really care about our performance and doing well. The long runs we did in the practice session today have been okay; we have been working throughout the weekend to find the right balance within the car but we still have work to do and need to be realistic.
When the session had a red flag in Q3, we had used a new set of tyres already so there was no point in going out again as we wouldn’t have improved on our lap time. I was hoping for a bit more from qualifying but we can assess and see what we can do to get the best out of the car a bit better and improve the pace. Today we ultimately didn’t optimise our performance: we will work with the Team to see what we can do ahead of tomorrow and make sure we have a better race day. I’m glad Checo is okay and it was a shame he crashed as he was having a decent weekend up until that point. It should be a bit warmer tomorrow as well and we see what the race brings.”
“I tried. The whole weekend we have been a little bit behind and that was the case in qualifying. It just wasn’t enough, and it is difficult to pinpoint why,” Verstappen said. “I love competition, but I would like to be on top of the competition. But at the moment I feel we are chasing, and I don’t back out of a fight, but it’s trickier.”
It was the first one-two finish in qualifying for McLaren in 12 years.
“It’s an amazing result for the team,” Piastri said, before adding that the main goal is to keep both the papaya-colored cars at the front come the race’s finish.
“Of course I want to get into the lead, but we have both cars on the front row and we are trying to win this championship as a team, and we will be smart,” the Australian said. “We want to keep it one-two and we will fight it amongst ourselves to see who gets one.”
Light rain added to the difficulties for teams in a session that featured two red flags for crashes.
Verstappen will likely not be able to count on any help from teammate Sergio Pérez, whose woes continued when his Red Bull spun off and hit the barrier during the first segment of qualifying. He is set to start from 16th.
Fernando
QUALIFYING P7
“I think we have to be pleased with seventh and eighth positions today and both cars inside the top ten again. We brought some updates to the car this weekend and it appears to have made us more competitive so far. We also made some setup tweaks overnight to accommodate the new package and these worked well. The conditions out there were really challenging, with some rain in the air and then there was some confusion at the end of the session during the red flag conditions. The points are given out tomorrow though, so let’s see if we can deliver a good result in the race.”
Checo
“This is a difficult one to digest, track conditions were tricky, but the track was getting better as the runs progressed and unfortunately on the entry I clipped the curb and became a passenger. I know I let my Team down once again and the most important thing is to recover quickly from today. You run out of words to say but you have to stick with the positives, I am trying my best to get out of this difficult moment, there are things I can control and things I cannot. Today I messed up but tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity. The positive thing is the pace has been there this weekend, we were the fastest in the long run on Friday. It hurts more because the weekend had been so strong up until now and I am more determined than ever to get back to where we belong as a Team.”