McLaren’s Lando Norris took his first grand prix pole position of the season, beating Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by 0.012 seconds with the final lap of the session in Hungary.
Hamilton had been fastest on the first runs, by just over 0.1secs from Norris, but neither the seven-time champion nor team-mate Charles Leclerc could improve on their final attempts.
Norris pulled out pole, following one in the sprint in Miami, in a chaotic end to the session caused by a spin at the final corner by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The four-time champion’s error affected Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, who were forced to slow, ending up fourth and seventh.
Verstappen had got going again before Norris came around as the last driver on track to clinch pole in the upgraded McLaren.
Norris said: “Very happy to be back on top, especially at a track where you certainly want to be on pole.
“I had confidence the whole of today. My laps in Q3 were not the best, even the one at the end, so pleasantly surprised to be on top.”
Hamilton was a second slower on his second run than on his first, and he also faces an investigation for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at Turn One after he finished his final lap.
Antonelli is another driver off to the stewards, in his case for an alleged yellow-flag infringement.
Verstappen, who railed about the unpredictable handling of the Red Bull over the radio after his spin, managed to take sixth, ahead of Russell and the second Red Bull of Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad and Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg.