Lando Norris: "Very, very happy to be back on top" After Hungaroring Pole thriller

Credit: Formula One

Lando Norris is back on pole position, and he made everyone wait until the final seconds to find out. The McLaren driver denied Lewis Hamilton by just 0.012 seconds in a Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session that swung on tenths and hundredths all the way to the chequered flag, snapping Mercedes' run of poles this season and handing the reigning world champion his first pole of 2026.

"Yeah, thanks. Very, very happy. Very happy to be back on top," Norris said. "A tough qualifying. Obviously, these guys here were very quick, and it's been pretty tight the whole weekend. But we've seemed quick from the first laps that we did, and we brought a few upgrades.

"It's hard to know how much it helps in terms of lap time, but it certainly helped today. So, yeah, very, very happy to be back on top, especially at a track where you certainly want to be on pole."

Hamilton had looked set to take his tenth pole at the Hungoring, briefly topping the times before Norris' final lap flipped the session on its head. Asked whether he knew Hamilton had gone quickest before his own decisive run, Norris pointed to the strength of his opening sector all weekend.

"I mean, honestly, I had confidence the whole of today," he said. "My laps in Q3 were not the best, even the one at the end, so I'm pleasantly surprised to be on top. But we've been doing a good job. The car's been feeling good. I've had good confidence. I certainly pushed it a little bit more on the last lap. Some paid off, some didn't, but the main thing is we did it in the end. So, I'm very, very pleased for the team. A big thanks to them for working so hard and, yeah, another big job for tomorrow."

Pole comes with a clean run down to Turn 1 from the right side of the grid, but Norris was quick to temper any sense that Saturday's result settles Sunday's race. Charles Leclerc qualified third for Ferrari, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli fourth for Mercedes, while Max Verstappen spun at the final corner on his last lap and could only manage sixth, behind McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

"Yeah, it certainly is," Norris said of the long run to Turn 1. "I mean, I'm in the best position for it, of course, but these guys get good starts. They've been fast all season, so I'm still expecting a tough race. Obviously, they did Q1 on the medium, so it'll be interesting to know what tyre they're going to start on tomorrow.

"They may potentially be in a slightly better position with some things. But otherwise, we did the job that we had to do today, so I'm pleased with that. Tonight, we'll make sure we prepare in the best way possible for tomorrow."

By his own admission, the lap that took pole was not flawless. Norris described a tricky, inconsistent surface underfoot through the session, with grip levels shifting from corner to corner.

"It was good enough for pole. It wasn't my finest," he said. "Honestly, just difficult to put a lap together here, that's for sure, with the new tarmac and it being grippy in places and not grippy in others. At times, it feels like a bit of a lottery in certain corners. But I certainly did a good amount of the lap, the best I've done. I had the confidence to push more and push more.

"I kind of got into unexplored territory with what happens to the balance when I push it to that next level, and I lost a bit of time in a couple of places. So, if I had a third run, I certainly think I could have gone quite a chunk better, but I didn't have a third run. Still, very happy nonetheless to be here again. It's been a while, and I've felt confident all weekend, so it's nice to be able to turn it into something like that."

Hamilton had gone fastest after the first Q3 runs, but Norris said he never doubted his own pace was there, even after a scrappy opening lap of his own.

"I was confident. I knew I could do it, honestly," he said. "My first lap was also not the best. I just had a big snap of oversteer in Turn 12, so Turn 13 I messed up, and Turn 14 I was basically drifting. So I knew I could go quite a bit better. I was surprised my last lap was not better, but again, I tried to push it more. That's why I say, with a third attempt, I think I would have understood the best of both worlds. But as I sat in the garage, I knew the pace was certainly there. It has been all weekend.

"Even though these guys have been insanely fast, I knew I'd been driving very well, I'd been consistent, and I knew the car had potential. We also had the upgrades this weekend, and it doesn't feel that different, but it certainly seems to be going a little bit quicker, and that's always a good thing."

Asked whether a first pole of the season felt like a turning point, Norris was measured, tracing the result back to a Spa weekend where he believed the pace for a strong result was present even though it didn't convert.

"Let's just wait and see. I mean, it's just qualifying. It's a long race ahead tomorrow, and it's going to be a difficult one, so we'll see," he said. "Certainly, if we just go back to Spa last weekend, like I said then, I thought I had good enough pace to certainly not be on pole, but certainly fight for a podium and potentially a win, just in terms of pace. I obviously didn't, but the potential was there.

"It's nice to see that's kind of carried over to this weekend. We brought some good upgrades, like I said, and that potential has turned into a result, which is always a very nice thing to see for the whole team and very good for the motivation and the atmosphere within the team. It's rewarding to see work going in and rewards being taken out.

"So, very pleased for all of them. But you can't just rely on one good qualifying, so I need a good race tomorrow. Then we obviously have a nice summer break, but after that we need to try and repeat it several more times. We've been working hard. We know we've been on the back foot, but we're making progress, and today certainly shows that."

Norris will start Sunday's race from the front row with Leclerc alongside him, ahead of a Hungaroring race where overtaking has traditionally been at a premium, before Formula 1 heads into its summer break.