F1: Verstappen takes Maiden Pole in Hungary

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Max Verstappen has taken his maiden pole position in Budapest ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Max takes his first ever pole less than a week on from the Red Bull drivers stunning victory at Hockenheim, Verstappen becomes the 100th ever pole-sitter in Formula 1 history.

Verstappen: “It is incredible. The car felt good all weekend, we knew it was going to be hard but the car was flying.”

The Dutchman stunned the crowd in a close battle with the two Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas took second ahead of five-time world champion teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Bottas: “We’ve been chasing [Red Bull] all weekend and we’ve been very close, it’s a good result but obviously I wanted pole.”

Hamilton: “We always target first, but we are still in a good position to fight for the win.”

“I’m always up for a fight.”

Sebastian Vettel will look to carry his momentum from the German Grand Prix at Hungaroring. Image sourced from @ShellMotorsport via Twitter.

Both Ferrari’s were close to half a second down on Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc beating out teammate Sebastian Vettel by less than a tenth of a second.

However earlier in Q1, Leclerc spun his Ferrari into the barrier at the final corner, leaving the Scuderia with some repairs to do some ahead of Q2.

Pierre Gasly could only manage sixth place in his Red Bull, with the Frenchmen almost nine-tenths of a second down on Verstappen.

McLaren once again were best of the rest in qualifying. Image sourced from @McLarenF1 via Twitter.

McLaren secured their status as the best of the rest once again.

The Woking based team led the midfield all weekend, with rookie Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. finishing in seventh and eight respectively.

Romain Grosjean in his Melbourne Spec Haas pulled out a decent lap, putting himself in ninth place ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

Unfortunately for Alfa Romeo, Kimi’s teammate Antonio Giovinazzi was knocked out in Q2 and is currently under investigation for blocking Racing Point’s Lance Stroll in Q1.

Stroll was once again eliminated at the start of qualifying, as was Mexican teammate Sergio Perez who was involved in an incident with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.

George Russell in the Williams had an amazing session putting his car in sixteenth.

Conversely, Robert Kubica – who had an estimated 40,000 Polish fans supporting him – was last, 1.3 seconds down on team-mate Russell.

Hungarian GP Qualifying Highlights:

 

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