Seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for Mercedes for tomorrow’s 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix – it was Hamilton’s 104th career pole position and third in the last five Hungarian Grands Prix.
Formula 1 instituted new qualifying rules for this race as they test out sustainability strategies for the future and the rules were that all teams were reduced from 13 sets of tires to 11 sets and only hard tires could be used in the first qualifying session, only medium tires could be used in the second qualifying session and only soft tires could be used in the third and final qualifying session.
That changed teams’ strategies and the first victim of the new rules was Hamilton’s Mercedes’ teammate, George Russell, who was attempting to save his hard tires for one final run in the first qualifying session only to encounter heavy traffic as the time clock wound down and prevented him from getting a clean track for his flying lap and knocking him out in the first session, relegating him to 18th on the grid tomorrow after he was the pole-sitter in the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix. The second victim was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Jr., who exited in the second qualifying session on the medium tires.
The third session on the soft tires saw much of the same strategies used in the first two sessions being applied in the final session and Hamilton waited until the end of the session to produce his pole position-winning flying lap, nipping Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by a mere three-thousandths of a second.
2023 Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Session Top 10
1] Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.609
2] Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:16.612
3] Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.694
4] Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:16.905
5] Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:16.971
6] Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.992
7] Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:17.034
8] Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:17.035
9] Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:17.045
10] Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:17.186
