Lando Norris stormed to pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, beating team-mate Oscar Piastri with Max Verstappen rounding off the top three.

As the green lights ticked on in the pit lane for Q1, rain drizzled down onto the Hungaroring tarmac and while light at first, race engineers were left to inform their drivers that more was on the way. That news set up a mad scramble to get laps on the board and left George Russel and Charles Leclerc in danger after tricky first runs.

With seven minutes left on the clock, disaster struck for F1’s most under-pressure driver. Sergio Perez slammed into the barriers at Turn Eight after losing the back end of his RB20, bringing out the red flag and bringing his afternoon to an end.

Russell was unable to escape Q1 and his disaster was nearly followed by more Mercedes frustration. After cruising through Q1, Lewis Hamilton found himself looking over his shoulder after an underwhelming final run. In the end, the seven-time world champion scraped through in P10.

Nico Hulkenberg was the man on the wrong side of the elimination line with the in-form Haas racer unable to oust Hamilton from the top 10. His team-mate Kevin Magnussen was also eliminated along with Valtteri Bottas, Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant.

McLaren stamped their authority on Q3 and with just over two minutes left on the clock, Norris was leading his colleague in a one-two for the Woking-based team. However, a major shunt for Yuki Tsunoda brought out the red flag, stopped the ticker and offered Verstappen a chance to launch another challenge for pole position. However, the Dutchman did not try a final run.

However, as the first sector times rolled in, the timing screen was peppered with yellow rectangles with only Daniel Ricciardo able to improve his time. Both McLaren drivers peeled into the pit lane to confirm a front-row lockout for the Hungarian GP.