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🇮🇹 Italy /Sports

Norris takes pole in Hungary as Hamilton and Antonelli face grid penalties

From ANSA · () Italian

Translated from Italian, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News From a news agency Context piece
  • Lando Norris secured his first pole position of the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, clocking an impeccable lap time.
  • Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli received grid penalties, dropping them from potential front-row starts.
  • Ferrari showed strong pace, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz aiming for podium finishes despite challenges with grip and wind.

Lando Norris seized his first pole position of the season at the Hungaroring, delivering an outstanding performance in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver's lap of 1'17"207 edged out Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton by a mere 12 thousandths of a second, marking a significant achievement as it's the first pole not secured by Mercedes this year.

I'm very happy to be back on top. It was a tough session and the Ferrari guys were very fast. It was difficult all weekend but our updates helped us: it's beautiful to be on pole, especially on this track.

— Lando NorrisLando Norris expressing his happiness after securing pole position.

However, the front row was reshuffled due to penalties. Lewis Hamilton was demoted three places for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flag conditions. Similarly, Mercedes junior driver Kimi Antonelli also received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri during his final qualifying run. This dropped Hamilton to fifth and Antonelli to seventh on the grid.

Congratulations to Lando.

— Lewis HamiltonLewis Hamilton congratulating Lando Norris after qualifying.

These penalties promoted Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to second on the grid, sharing the front row with Norris. McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen also moved up, benefiting from the circumstances. Norris expressed his delight, stating, "I'm very happy to be back on top. It was a tough session and the Ferrari guys were very fast." He credited the team's updates for the strong performance.

They told me literally when he was in the corner behind me. Obviously, it wasn't intentional.

— Lewis HamiltonLewis Hamilton explaining the circumstances of his penalty for impeding Oscar Piastri.

Despite the setback, Hamilton remained optimistic, congratulating Norris. He explained that he wasn't adequately warned about Piastri's approach, stating, "They told me literally when he was in the corner behind me." He also noted a lack of grip as a contributing factor. Charles Leclerc acknowledged the challenging conditions, including significant wind, and a lack of rear grip in his second Q3 run, but expressed confidence in Ferrari's race pace, aiming for a podium finish.

Today there was a nice change of wind. I struggled a lot especially in turn 1 and 12. On the second run in Q3 I lacked grip at the rear.

— Charles LeclercCharles Leclerc describing the challenging conditions during qualifying.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ANSA in Italian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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