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FACTS AND STATS: Alpine prop up the field for the first time since Bahrain as Russell suffers second straight Hungaroring Q1 exit
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Sean KellyShare
Lando Norris defied the incredibly tricky wet-dry conditions to grab his second pole position of the year in Hungary, and the even better news for McLaren is that they secured a front row lock-out courtesy of Oscar Piastri. Max Verstappen starts third and is on the back foot, but he was at least in the fight – with team mate Sergio Perez having crashed out in Q1. Here and the best facts and stats from Budapest…
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Norris grabbed McLaren’s first pole in Hungary since Lewis Hamilton was P1 for the team back in 2012. It’s Norris’s second Grand Prix pole of the season and third of his career.
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It was McLaren’s ninth pole at the Hungaroring, tying Mercedes for the most in the venue’s history.
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McLaren's last front row lock-out was in Brazil 2012, which was also Hamilton’s last race for the team. He shared the front row with Jenson Button. Norris has never been out-qualified by a team mate at the Hungaroring in six previous visits.
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Nobody has won from pole in Hungary for the last three years, nor from the last four Grands Prix this season.
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Piastri was second, his third career front row start following Japan last year and Monaco earlier this season.
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The last time McLaren had a front row lock-out, the driver in second (Button) won the race.
McLaren secured a rare front row lock-out in Budapest
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The pole margin in Hungary has been 0.044s or less for the last three years running.
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Verstappen grabbed third, and now has only one pole in the last six races, having taken the first seven pole positions of the year.
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Carlos Sainz was fourth, having only started higher than P4 here once before – when he was second in 2022.
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Hamilton was fifth, meaning there was no Mercedes in the top four on the grid here for the first time since he joined the team back in 2013.
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Hamilton out-qualified his team mate for only the third time this season, having reached Q3 by just 0.010s.
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Charles Leclerc was sixth, the same position he started here last year.
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Fernando Alonso bagged seventh, his highest start since Canada, four races ago.
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Lance Stroll grabbed only his second-ever Q3 appearance in Hungary, having qualified third here in 2020.
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Daniel Ricciardo made Q3, having topped the timing sheets in Q1, the first time he’s been P1 in any session or segment since FP1 in Bahrain.
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Yuki Tsunoda made it to Q3, meaning RB managed to get both cars into the top 10 here for the first time since 2018.
RB got both cars into Q3 for the third time this season
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Nico Hulkenberg missed Q3 by just 0.010s.
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Valtteri Bottas was 12th, matching his qualifying from Spain.
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Alex Albon’s P13 was his highest start in Hungary since joining Williams in 2022.
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Logan Sargeant was 14th, having reached Q2 in consecutive races for only the second time in his career.
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Kevin Magnussen could only manage P15, meaning he has been out-qualified by Hulkenberg 10-3 this season so far.
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Perez starts from P16 – although the good news for him is that Sainz finished third in 2021 after crashing in qualifying and starting 15th.
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Perez suffered his fourth Q1 elimination in the last six races, tied for the most in that time with Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
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George Russell was on pole here in 2022, but was eliminated in Q1 at the Hungaroring for the second straight year.
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Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly share the last row of the grid, meaning Alpine have the slowest two cars for the first time since the opening race in Bahrain. It’s their worst ever two-car qualifying here in Enstone team history (as Benetton, Renault, Lotus and Alpine).
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