F1 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying updates

The Guardian

a day ago

Update:
Date: 2025-08-02T12:59:54.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: In a rare twist, last week's qualifying at Spa did not decide the race, but it did offer plenty of drama. Lewis Hamilton fell foul of track limits to go out in Q1 and Oscar Piastri was pipped to pole by McLaren teammate Lando Norris. More of the same today, please.
Placing qualification at the Hungaroring in the 2025 season's broader context, Norris said earlier this week that title will come down to 'who qualifies first and second more often' while making the 'least mistakes when they qualify first'. He noted that there have not been a lot of races where the lead has changed hands after turn one. This analysis is both correct and, therefore, a strong self-critique of his performance in the race at the Belgian Grand Prix, where he won the qualifying battle but lost the lead to Piastri on the first lap.
As we prepare to enter the summer break, Piastri has won three times in races where he hasn't qualified on pole, Norris has only managed this once, that coming at Silverstone. These are the fine margins that Norris will need to turn in his favour in Hungary and for the remainder of the season.
It is foolish to read too much into practice but Norris was quicker than Piastri on Friday, albeit neither of those were under optimum conditions, but then the Australian clocked a 1min 14.916secs lap this morning to go 0.032secs quicker than his teammate.
Elsewhere eyes in the Ferrari garage will be on Lewis Hamilton after he failed to get out of Q1 in both the sprint and main race last weekend. Late-stage Hamilton at Ferrari has become a curious entity, he is rarely troubling the podium places and also seems much more willing to admit mistakes. He described his qualifying performance as 'unacceptable' and said he would be apologising to his team. Even though it is obvious that the Ferrari is not currenty fast enough to be winning races, Hamilton's actions smack of a new hire who wants to ingratiate themselves with their colleagues.
Undoubtedly the Briton is hopeful that it will payoff somewhere down the line when the team produce a competitve vehicle. It is now some time since the seven-time world champion had one of those. However, Fred Vasseur has signed a new deal with the Italian team, so the higher-ups clearly think the direction of travel is good. The Ferraris performed well this morning with Charles Leclerc notching the third quickest lap and Hamilton the fourth.