F1: George Russel Storms To Pole For The Hungarian GP

George Russel delivered a scorching lap right at the end of Q3 to steal pole position away from Carlos Sainz and Ferrari. Russel claimed his career-first pole position and the first pole position for Mercedes this season. "I'm over the moon. Absolutely buzzing. The lap time kept on coming. I came across the line and saw we went P1 and that was an incredible feeling", Russel exclaimed after qualifying. Carlos Sainz looked set for pole position with his mega lap, but despite his best efforts had to settle for second. Charles Leclerc could only manage to qualify third. Red Bull had a terrible afternoon however, as Sergio Perez was knocked out in Q2 with one of his lap time being deleted and another lap ruined due to traffic, and Max Verstappen suffered from loss of power in Q3, leaving him unable to set a competitive lap time, and down in P10.

Despite both the Red Bulls out of contention for pole, Charles Leclerc could only qualify third.

Having brought several upgrades to its car, McLaren had a strong showing from the start of this weekend, and Lando Norris capped that by qualifying in P4. Daniel Ricciardo however, could only manage to qualify ninth, as his below-par form continues. Both the Alpines put up very similar lap times, and picked up P5 and P6, while Valtteri Bottas qualified in eighth. While George Russel put his W13 on pole, Lewis Hamilton couldn't manage to replicate his lap and could only qualify seventh, a whole eight tenths of a second behind pole.

McLaren brought several updates to its MCL36 in Hungary.

With the two Ferraris up front with the Mercedes, this weekend could prove to be a valuable one for the Maranello based outfit and its drivers to claw their way back into the championship. With both Red Bull drivers much further down below, and there being the possibility of a power unit change penalty being inflicted on Max Verstappen, Ferrari finally has a chance to fill up its points deficit to Red Bull, as we head into the three-week summer break. It now remains to be seen if Ferrari and its drivers can make the most of it.

2022 Formula 1 World Championship Round 13: Hungarian GP - Qualifying Results: