Lewis Hamilton took a breath-taking pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, ending a five-race streak from rival Max Verstappen.
The Brit also confirmed his status of King of the Ring, bagging his ninth pole position at the Hungaroring – the most of any driver at a single track in Formula 1 history.
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Speaking after his astonishing lap, Hamilton said: “It’s been a crazy year and a half so I’ve lost my voice from shouting so much in the car.
“We’ve been pushing so hard, so to finally get this pole feels like the first time.
“I gave it absolutely everything, there was nothing left in it.
“It’s been massively challenging for everyone in the team, there’s been massive ups and downs, it’s been a rollercoaster ride but no one gave up.
“I’ll just try and see if I can sleep tonight, we will study as hard as I can and we will be bring everything.”
The pole position, which Hamilton took by just 0.003 from rival Verstappen, was the 104th of his career, but also his first since his epic 2021 title-fight with the Dutchman.
Hamilton could now deny Red Bull the ultimate team honour on Sunday, with the Milton Keynes team just one race from a new record for consecutive victories, currently standing joint on 11 with the 1988 McLaren team.
And while things were close between Hamilton and Verstappen, it was similar just behind, with Silverstone podium-finisher Lando Norris less than one tenth back in third.
The Brit was even dissatisfied, saying: “I’m disappointed I guess, if you are doing within a tenth of pole, it feels like you could be on pole if you put the lap together.
“As a driver I’m not the happiest, I made too many mistakes.”
There was a similar tone from Verstappen, who commented: “I’ve been struggling the whole weekend to find a good balance, I had a really difficult Q1, Q2 to attack the corners.
“We are still second but I think we should be ahead with the car we have, but this weekend we haven’t been on it.”
