Hamilton breaks F1 record with sublime Hungary pole

Lewis Hamilton secured a sublime pole position with the very last lap of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver broke the record for most poles at a single circuit with his ninth at the Hungaroring.

Hamilton set a benchmark of a 1:16.609 to beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen to pole by just 0.003secs.

Lando Norris confirmed McLaren's Silverstone improvement with third ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri.

Hamilton was over a tenth down entering his final lap of the session, but with Verstappen unable to improve, the seven-time F1 champion delivered to secure his first pole since 2021.

Zhou Guanyu was fastest in Q1 and delivered his best result of his career to qualify fifth, with only Ferrari's Charles Leclerc between him and Alfa Romeo teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, ahead of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Sainz nightmare, Ricciardo return

Sainz was unlucky to miss out on a place in the final part of qualifying having lapped only 0.002s slower than compatriot Alonso.

Teammate Leclerc was in 12th before completing his lap at the death, pushing Sainz down to 11th.

The Spaniard will start alongside Esteban Ocon, who was the lead Alpine after teammate Pierre Gasly lost his best lap time for exceeding track limits.

Daniel Ricciardo made a fine return to F1 to start 13th, out-qualifying AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda at the first time of asking, finishing ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Frenchman Gasly.

Russell shock

Russell was the big shock of the opening 18 minutes of qualifying when falling 0.121s short of the cut-off point.

Last year's pole-sitter will start only 18th after leaving his final run too late, getting caught up in traffic as drivers jostled for lap-starting position in the final sector.

Williams' Alex Albon set a lap time good enough for 16th ahead of AlphaTauri's Tsunoda, with Haas' Kevin Magnussen and rookie Logan Sargeant filling the final row on the grid.