Sir Lewis Hamilton was just one hundredth of a second off pole position in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix earlier today, finishing second to Lando Norris.
The session was full of surprises: Alonso managed to get through to Q2 after a massive chassis upgrade, and there were yellow flags thanks to a spin from Verstappen. And a water leak for Russell and Norris, improving to pole despite most failing to improve on their initial laps.
Oscar Piastri, who qualified fifth, had his initial lap impeded by Lewis Hamilton at the first corner and sarcastically thanked the British veteran with a sarcastic thumbs up. Lewis apologised and was clearly unaware that Piastri was on a lap behind him when he got on the radio to his team.
Unfortunately for Hamilton, his apologies were not enough to prevent him from being called to the stewards’ office, and he has now been awarded a three-place penalty, downgrading him to fifth place for tomorrow’s race. Leclerc, Antonelli and Piastri will be promoted to second, third and fourth respectively.
Nevertheless, Ferrari have been consistently fast this weekend and will still be in with a chance of a good result tomorrow and need one if they’re going to close the gap to Mercedes.
Lights out is at 2pm BST tomorrow at the Hungaroring, where all of the front-runners will be looking to close the gap to Kimi Antonelli, who currently sits forty-five points ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
