Norris on Hungary pole in McLaren front-row lockout

Lando Norris led Oscar Piastri to a McLaren one-two ahead of Max Verstappen in an action-packed qualifying session at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Norris edged out his team-mate by 0.022 seconds and Verstappen by just 0.046secs in a session which featured changing conditions and two red flags for big crashes.

That gives Norris his third career pole, and McLaren a first one-two in qualifying since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth for Mercedes behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, while team-mate George Russell was only 17th after he and the team fumbled a wet-dry first session.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez increased the pressure that was already mounting on his future with a crash in the first session that left him 16th on the grid.

The other red flag was caused by RB’s Yuki Tsunoda in the final session, with just over two minutes remaining.

The session did resume, but Verstappen and Fernando Alonso decided there was no reason to go out again and they were proved right as only Daniel Ricciardo improved on the final lap, to leapfrog Tsunoda into ninth place.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took sixth ahead of Alonso, his Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll and the two RBs.

The margin between the top three perhaps belied Norris’ advantage in the session as both Piastri and Verstappen managed to complete their second laps before Tsunoda crashed, while Norris did not.

After the first runs Norris, using the only set of new tyres he had remaining for the final session, was 0.328secs quicker than Verstappen, and Piastri a similar margin further back.

With rain threatening to return in the final minutes of the session, all the teams rushed out straight away for a second lap.

But Verstappen was first out and Piastri behind him, while Norris was close to the back of the queue.

The Dutchman and Australian used their second set of new tyres to close on Norris, and Piastri was also able to vault ahead of Verstappen on to the front row.

Verstappen punched his steering wheel in frustration as he crossed the line and admitted later he felt Red Bull, who have what he said was their biggest upgrade of the season on the car, were not quite on McLaren’s pace all weekend.

But Norris, on used tyres, did not get around to complete his lap before Tsunoda crashed on the exit of Turn Five to bring out the red flag.

Norris and Piastri went out again once the session was resumed, but Verstappen, out of tyres, did not. It made no difference because none of the front-runners improved.

“The whole weekend we have been a little bit behind,” Verstappen said. “That was also the case in qualifying. I tried to make it as close as possible, but unfortunately just not enough. I would have liked a bit more grip but it’s just not here at the moment.”

Aston Martin were another team to introduce a big upgrade and it seemed to make a difference to their competitiveness, with Alonso achieving his best qualifying result since the Canadian Grand Prix in June, which was wet. It was his best dry qualifying since the fifth race of the season in China, back in April.

Alonso was another driver, along with Verstappen, to be out of his car at the end of the session.

In his case, he was unhappy about the way officials had handled the end of the session.

He was in the last corner of his flying lap when the red flag came out for the crash, which took place earlier in the lap – something Alonso said was “a little bit strange”. He was then initially put in the parc ferme area in the pit lane.

He did manage to return to the garage, but he had no new tyres left to do another lap.

Both Perez and Russell had difficult days, but one may have rather larger consequences than the other.

Russell and Mercedes mishandled the changing conditions of the first session.

Russell paid the price for lacking pace in the early laps, which left him on the cusp of being knocked out while Hamilton was fastest of all.

Then, in the hectic final minutes of the session, after the red flag for Perez’s crash, the requirement was to be on track at the end as the track dried out.

Russell went out early and vaulted into the top 10 when the track was still damp.

But he then did not have sufficient fuel to stay out to the end of the session, and found himself tumbling down the order as rivals improved on the drying track.

Russell said: “To be in that position in the first place was on me because I took it easy at the start of Q1 – because we thought there was going to be no more rain – but it started raining and that lap one was crucial.

“But it didn’t matter because the track was quickest at the end and we had no fuel to finish the lap.

“I’m really quite angry with myself for the beginning and I really don’t know how we found ourselves in this position. We all made an error as a team.”

Perez, under pressure for his seat after a string of poor performances – and with Red Bull’s motorsport adviser saying “all options are open”, crashed in the first session and qualified 16th.

The Mexican said: “It was really bad timing. It was raining a bit harder in that particular part [of the circuit] and when I turned in I clipped a bit of the kerb and it was on the damp side, and I lost the car on the way in.”

He admitted that he could not afford to keep making mistakes.

“It cannot happen again,” Perez said. “But at the same time it makes me more determined to get back to my form. Head down and obviously learn from this mistake that has happened one after the other.”