Lando Norris pips Lewis Hamilton to Hungary pole as Mercedes duo struggle

Lando Norris landed the first pole position of his world championship defence after he beat Lewis Hamilton to top spot for the Hungarian Grand Prix by just 0.012 seconds.

Hamilton appeared on course to end a three-year run without taking pole only to be usurped by Norris in the closing moments of a thrilling qualifying session at the Hungaroring.

Hamilton had to settle for second, a place ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc, but he still has a strong chance of taking a record-extending ninth win at venue he has so often ruled, and slash Kimi Antonelli’s advantage at the summit of the world championship standings.

Antonelli, who holds a 45-point lead over Hamilton heading into the final round before the sport’s summer break, starts only fourth after Mercedes’ exclusive run of poles at every round so far came to a stuttering end.

Antonelli’s team-mate George Russell was even further back in seventh as his title assault threatens to combust.

Russell’s campaign has been blighted by reliability problems and he stopped on track with another failure after he completed his last lap.

Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri finished fifth, four tenths back, with Max Verstappen sixth.

“How was it? It was good enough for pole but not my finest lap,” said Norris. “It was a difficult to put a lap together here that’s for sure. I am very happy to be here again. It’s been a while.

“I was confident I could do it. I knew I could go quite a bit better and the pace was there even though Ferrari have been insanely fast so far. But it is only qualifying and we need to repeat this result several times.”

Hamilton held an advantage of 0.101 sec prior to the deciding runs in Q3, but he could not improve on his time to leave the door ajar to