Lando Norris On Pole As Mclaren Lock Out 'Sweet' Hungarian Grand Prix Front Row

Lando Norris grabbed pole position ahead of his team-mate Oscar Piastri for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday as McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for the first time since 2012. Red Bull's three-time champion Max Verstappen had to settle for third and the second row in the tense wet-dry qualifying. The 24-year-old Briton, who is 84 points behind Verstappen in this year's title race, clocked a best lap in one minute and 15.227 seconds to outpace the Australian by 0.022 seconds.

Verstappen was three-hundredths of a second adrift in third ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who leaves the team at the end of the year, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, who will replace him.

Charles Leclerc, in the second Ferrari was sixth ahead of two-time champion Fernando Alonso and his Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll and the RBs of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, who had survived a high-speed crash earlier in Q3.

It was Norris's second pole in four races and the third of his burgeoning career as he gains front-running experience in his bid to challenge Verstappen who, on Sunday bids to complete a hat-trick of Hungarian wins.

"I'm very happy with that and it wasn't easy at all in difficult conditions so ending up on top is the best for us all and a great result for the team," said Norris.

"We have come into this weekend confident we can do a good job so to be on pole is sweet."

"It's the first 1-2 for McLaren for a long time and an amazing result for us," said Piastri. "I had a tricky day yesterday so for me it is nice to bounce back."

Verstappen said: "I tried. We have been behind the whole weekend and I tried to make it as close as possible, but it wasn't enough. I would have liked a bit more grip..."

A