F1: George Russell Takes First Career Pole at Hungarian Grand Prix

George Russell of Mercedes beat both Ferraris and world champion Max Verstappen to claim his maiden pole position with a spectacular last-gasp lap in Saturday’s qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 24-year-old Briton clocked a best lap in one minute and 17.377 seconds to outpace Carlos Sainz in the leading Ferrari by 0.044 seconds. Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari, one-tenth adrift.

Lando Norris grabbed fourth for McLaren ahead of the two Alpines of last year’s winner Esteban Ocon and two-time champion Fernando Alonso, who turned 41 on Friday.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton aborted his final flying lap in his Mercedes due to a Drag Reduction System (DRS) failure and qualified seventh ahead of former team-mate Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo.

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Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren was ninth and Red Bull’s series leader and world champion Verstappen 10th after suffering power failure problems and failing to record a competitive lap time.

Russell’s first pole in his 73rd Grand Prix was also Mercedes’s first since last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and signalled that the team may finally have overcome their struggles with the new ‘ground effect’ aerodynamic regulations this season.

“Incredible! Amazing. You did it,” screamed Russell on his team radio. “You beauty. No points for Saturday, boys… Let’s go tomorrow.”

Back in the pitlane, as the big crowd gave him generous cheers, he said he was “over the moon” and “buzzing – and yesterday was our worst Friday of the season… It’s mega. An incredible feeling.”

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