Norris takes pole ahead of McLaren teammate Piastri at Hungarian GP. Verstappen starting 3rd

BUDAPEST (AP) — McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the Hungarian Grand Prix front row ahead of Formula 1 leader Max Verstappen after a stellar qualifying session for the British team on Saturday.

Norris scored his third career pole position, and will have his teammate starting right behind him as he aims for a second win of the season. Norris won in Miami in May and has come close to another victory with four podium finishes since then. He took pole in Spain last month and in Russia in 2021.

“We’ve come into this weekend and the last few confident we can fight for pole," Norris said. "We are in the best position for whatever the conditions throw at us.”

The Hungarian GP marks the start of the second half of the season, which looks set to be much more hotly contested than the opening races.

Verstappen, who will start from third on the grid, has won at the Hungaroring the past two years despite not starting from pole. He won 2022 from a 10th-place start.

But the Dutchman had no problem acknowledging McLaren is providing Red Bull with its stiffest test of the past three seasons. Norris topped practice on Friday and earlier Saturday before showing his dominance when it mattered.

“I tried. The whole weekend we have been a little bit behind and that was the case in qualifying. It just wasn’t enough, and it is difficult to pinpoint why," Verstappen said. “I love competition, but I would like to be on top of the competition. But at the moment I feel we are chasing, and I don’t back out of a fight, but it’s trickier.”

It was the first one-two finish in qualifying for McLaren in 12 years.

“It's an amazing result for the team,” Piastri said, before adding that the main goal is to keep both the papaya-colored cars at the front come the race's finish.

“Of course I want to get into the lead, but we have both cars on the front row and we are trying to win this championship as a team, and we will be smart,” the Australian said. “We want to keep it one-two and we will fight it amongst ourselves to see who gets one.”

Light rain added to the difficulties for teams in a session that featured two red flags for crashes.

Verstappen will likely not be able to count on any help from teammate Sergio Pérez, whose woes continued when his Red Bull spun off and hit the barrier during the first segment of qualifying. He is set to start from 16th.

“It cannot happen again,” Perez said. “But at the same time, it makes me more determined to get back to my form, to ... head down and learn from these mistakes that have happened one after the other.”

At the British GP two weeks ago, the Mexican driver also got stuck in the gravel in qualifying. Following that error, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Pérez’s poor performances were “unsustainable,” sparking speculation that he could be replaced despite having signed a new contract just last month.

Yuki Tsunoda also slammed the side of his RB car into the barrier near the end of qualifying, damaging his front wing.

Neither driver was hurt.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz put in the fourth fastest time, followed by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin were seventh and eighth.

George Russell, for a second year in a row here, failed to get out of the first culling of the slowest five drivers.

“Sorry about that session guys, that was on me,” Russell, who will start from 17th, told his team.

Logan Sargeant’s Williams locked up and nudged the barrier during the first qualifying session. But the American still managed to get through into Q2 and will start from 14th.

Alpine pair Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had the slowest two times and will be at the back of the grid. Alpine was the only team not to go out for the final six minutes after the red flag stoppage for Pérez's crash when it had been raining. That decision proved to be costly. The team summed it up with a post on X that read, “Not our afternoon.”

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