World News Norris and Piastri on pole as McLaren take charge Blog

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The McLaren duo Lando Norris and Australian Oscar Piastri secured the front row for the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen after an outstanding qualifying for the British team on Saturday.

With a deficit of 84 points, Norris is the two-time world champion's closest competitor and hopes to reduce that gap in Sunday's race.

Piastri was second fastest at +0.022, giving McLaren the first front row since Brazil 2012 and only the third time in F1 history. Verstappen had to settle for third place on the grid on Sunday.

Raindrops in Budapest changed the dynamic after Norris topped the timesheets in the sunny final practice session on Saturday.

But the Briton, who won in Miami this year, clocked a time of 1 minute and 15.227 seconds in qualifying at the Hungaroring to secure his second pole of the season, continuing McLaren's huge leap in performance this year.

“If I do not [win] then it was not a good day. It is clear what the goal is for tomorrow,” said Norris, who finished second behind Verstappen in Budapest last year.

“We are in the best position no matter what conditions we face. I'm looking forward to it. Two cars on the front row, from there we can control it. So as long as we stay where we are, we're happy.”

Daniel Ricciardo, RB’s Australian driver, finished ninth, 1:16.447 behind Norris.

Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez spun into the wall in Q1, resulting in a red flag, meaning he only qualified 16th and a miserable season continued for the Mexican, who will leave the team next year or even sooner.

Mercedes driver George Russell, who took pole position last time in Britain, was caught up in the dispute and ended up in 17th place after a mix-up over the fuel level.

Traffic in the pits caused further problems for the drivers in Q2 as teams again misjudged their timing. Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg in 11th place was among those caught out. “We're done here. This is taking too long,” he said.

A serious accident by Yuki Tsunoda in Q3 led to the session being interrupted with 2.13 minutes to go, so Verstappen decided not to go out on track again in the rain, despite having upgrades to his Red Bull.

The Dutchman has been winless for two races after the Mercedes duo Russell and Lewis Hamilton won in Austria and Great Britain respectively.

Verstappen said: “I tried. We were a bit behind all weekend and I think that was also the case in qualifying.”

“I tried to get as close as possible, but unfortunately it just wasn't enough. It's a bit difficult to figure out why that is. I would have liked a bit more grip, but it's not there at the moment.”

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