The return of the king: Lewis Hamilton achieved a pole position in Formula 1 after a year and a half

Thanks to his great performance, the seven-time world champion in the category, fourth classified in this championship, puts an end to a long period of drought, since he had not achieved a pole position since December 2021, in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion of the Formula 1 He achieved the 104th ‘pole’ of his career by just three thousandths of a second, at the close of a classification that tested changes in the format of the tire strategy.

Verstappengreat rival of hamilton during the 2021 season, he falls outside the top position on the grid for the first time since the Monaco Grand Prix, in May. The Dutchman had five consecutive pole positions, all of which ended with race victory.

His partner, the Mexican Sergio Perezwho has suffered in the standings of the last two Grands Prix, will start on Sunday from 9th position.

Hamilton thus achieves a record ninth ‘pole’ on the track of hungaroring, a circuit in which he also holds the record for victories, with eight. On Sunday he starts with options to meet again with victory for the first time since the end of 2021.

Behind the two champions, the British Lando Norris achieved the third fastest time, ahead of his teammate in McLaren, Australian Oscar Piastri. The Chinese Zhou Guanyu, driver of Alfa Romeo, achieved a surprising fifth position, followed by the Monegasque charles leclerc (Ferrari).

Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), who achieved the first of the 32 victories of his career at this circuit in 2003, will start on Sunday from eighth position, behind Valtteri Botas’ Alfa Romeo (7th). The other Spaniard on the grid, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), did not make the cut in Q2 and will start 11th.

For his part, the Australian Daniel Ricciardowho was returning to Formula 1 in this Grand Prix after several months of absence, achieved 13th position with his AlphaTauri, beating his partner, the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (17th).

Saturday’s classification presented a novelty in the regulations, which requires the teams to use certain types of tires in a defined order for the different sessions.

During the first part of qualifying (Q1), the single-seaters had to start with hard tires, during the second round (Q2) with medium tires and during the third and last part (Q3) with the softer ones, to play for pole position.

This new system gave rise to surprises in the big teams. Proof of this was the performance of the other Mercedesthat of the British George Russellwho after achieving the first ‘pole position’ of his career in Hungary in 2022, will start on Sunday from 18th position.