2026 Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
3 min read

For one final time before the summer break, we went Qualifying around one of the hardest circuits on the calendar to overtake on: the Hungaroring!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Oliver Bearman, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas, and Sergio Perez were the six slowest drivers! Oliver Bearman will be pretty disappointed to have been outqualified by his Haas teammate, whilst Williams were absolutely nowhere pace-wise, with Carlos Sainz barely edging out Alex Albon! Lance Stroll will be frustrated with a couple of poor laps that meant he could only qualify P20 in the heavily upgraded Aston Martin, whilst Cadillac have now been demoted to the bottom of the field, with Valtteri Bottas more than 4 tenths clear of teammate Sergio Perez! Speaking of 4 tenths, that was basically the gap that Lando Norris had in the lead of Q1, with Max Verstappen second for Red Bull!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Liam Lawson, Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto, Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon, and Fernando Alonso all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Liam Lawson was unable to take advantage of finally having the upgraded Racing Bulls car, with Lawson complaining about a lack of grip, whilst Alpine’s lack of pace (in comparison to VCARB and Audi) showed once again, with Pierre Gasly a couple of tenths clear of teammate Franco Colapinto! Gabriel Bortoleto will be disappointed with just P14 for Audi, only one place higher than Haas’ Esteban Ocon (who will most likely be very pleased with his performance)! Then, whilst he was slowest in Q2, the fact that Fernando Alonso finally managed to get Aston Martin into that session is a real positive for the team, even if they’re still a long way off where they ultimately want to be! Norris was again top of Q2, this time with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc behind him!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a clutch 1:17.207 was enough for Lando Norris to take his first Grand Prix Pole Position of the season! It’s crazy to think that Lando hasn’t had a proper Pole since he became World Champion, but now the target for the reigning Champion is simple: start winning again! Lewis Hamilton will be gutted over the fact that he missed out on Pole by just 12 thousandths of a second, but it’s since gotten worse as a penalty has seen the 7-time World Champion be demoted down to P5! This means that Charles Leclerc will now start on the front row in the other Ferrari, whilst Andrea Kimi Antonelli would've started third after a difficult day for Mercedes! However, Kimi also received a post-Quali penalty, so he too drops 3 places! Oscar Piastri was, in fact, the driver who got impeded by Hamilton, meaning his P5 was perhaps unrepresentative, whilst Max Verstappen qualified 6th after spinning off at the final corner! A disappointed George Russell will start 7th after his car completely shut off, ahead of the other Red Bull of Isack Hadjar, whilst Arvid Lindblad was comfortably clear of Nico Hulkenberg in the fight for best of the rest!