It’s another race weekend full of drama for all F1 fans! Their favorite teams challenged each other at the Qualifiers for the Hungarian GP. And beating all odds, Lando Norris grabbed the pole for the third time in 2024. His teammate Oscar Piastri will also start Sunday’s race right behind him, ensuring a front-row lockout for McLaren. And Max Verstappen will be starting from P3 tomorrow as Red Bull sort of spoiled his game at the Qualis.

Q1 at the Hungaroring saw some heavyweights exit as George Russell and Sergio Perez got out of the run. But the actual fun came in the third round of Qualifying thanks to Yuki Tsunoda. The VCARB racer crashed in the final moment of Q3, causing the race controllers to announce the red flag. When 2 minutes and 13 seconds remained, the session resumed. At that point in time, all the cars had just one last chance to go for a flying lap to ensure they got the best starting positions for tomorrow.

Making the best use of the advantage that Tsunoda’s crash left McLaren, the team played a quick game. As Lando Norris was on the provisional pole and Piastri was in P2, the papaya army needed the standings to remain the same until Q3 ended. So, the team’s strategists made the MCL38s head for the pit exit early so that they slowed down the cars behind them. And they were successful since no other car could even make it to the starting line for a flying lap.

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen‘s Red Bull tactics blew up in his face. The team did not want to send him out in the rain for another lap. They thought there was no chance for the Dutchman to better his timings to beat the McLarens. In the end, Norris and Piastri walked away with the front row starts, pushing Verstappen behind. At the end of the Qualis, fans spotted Max going to the FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, perhaps to enquire whether what McLaren did to try to slow down other cars was the right move or not. And in the post-quali interview, the reigning World Champion sounded so defeated after the McLaren racers got the best of him.

Max Verstappen laments “chasing” after McLaren

Max Verstappen is used to winning in Formula 1 and his three Championship titles are proof of it. The Dutch racer might have led the pack in the previous seasons easily, but now, things are different. McLaren has chanced upon some great speed that was hidden in its cars. And suddenly, Norris has become a Championship contender with a gap of only 84 points between him and Verstappen. At a time like this, the 26-year-old needed to get pole ahead of the Hungarian GP.

However, Lando Norris beat him to it, and thus, he sounded disappointed during the post-quali interviews. Max reviewed his performance on Saturday at the Hungaroring, saying, “P3 is still very close, just have to hope the car is good in the race. I love competition, but I would like to be on top of the competition at the moment I feel we are chasing, and I don’t back out of a fight but it’s trickier I guess.”

For Lando Norris, the Hungaroring pole means another chance to repeat what he achieved at the Miami GP earlier this year. If he manages to win the race tomorrow, the Briton will have his second-ever Grand Prix victory in his pocket. Considering the speed that McLaren has shown recently, comment below if you believe Lando will win the battle against his opponents at the Hungarian GP tomorrow.