Lando Norris has finally turned McLaren’s promising pace into a result, claiming pole in Qualifying at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP while insisting that there is still work to do in Sunday’s race.
McLaren entered the Budapest weekend with significant upgrades on its floor and other aerodynamic parts. Adjusting to the changes, Norris finished P11 in FP1 before improving to P3 in FP2 and P1 in FP3.
Norris continued his momentum in Qualifying, making Q3 and taking P1 on his first lap despite a snap of oversteer at Turn 14. However, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton proved stronger on his first lap, taking provisional pole before Norris improved to retake P1 with a superb 1:17.207 lap.
Despite finishing Qualifying in P2, Hamilton will not start alongside Norris on the front row after a post-Qualifying grid penalty demoted him to P5. Meanwhile, championship leader Kimi Antonelli was also hit with a penalty, now starting P7 on the grid. As a result, Charles Leclerc will now join Norris on the front row, with Oscar Piastri behind in P3.
Norris: “I’ve been confident all weekend”
Reflecting on his Qualifying session during the 2026 FIA F1 Hungarian GP post-Qualifying press conference, Norris explained that despite taking pole, he believed there was still more time to find.
“Oh, how was it? It was good enough for pole. It wasn’t my finest. Honestly, just difficult to put a lap together here, that’s for sure, with the new tarmacs and it being grippy in places and not grippy in others. Sometimes it feels like a bit of a lottery in certain corners. But I certainly did a good amount of the lap, my best I’ve done.”
He added: “Some, I had the confidence to push more. I pushed more, and I kind of got it to unexplored territory from what happens to the balance when I push it to that next level. I kinda lost a bit of time in a couple of places. So, if I had a third run, I’d certainly go, I think, quite a chunk better, but I don’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 nice to be able to turn it into something.”
The 2026 F1 Hungarian GP Qualifying result marks Lando Norris’ 17th career pole, and more importantly, his first pole of this season.
McLaren vs. Ferrari
Despite Hamilton’s early advantage in Q3, Norris remained confident that he could respond thanks to a couple of snaps on run one, as he said: “I was confident. I knew I could do it, honestly. My first lap was also not the best. I just had a big snap of oversteer in [Turn] 12, sorry, 13. I messed up 14, I was drifting, basically. 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. I knew I sat in the garage, and I knew the pace was certainly there. It has been all weekend. Even though these guys [Ferraris] have been insanely fast, I knew I’ve been driving very well, and I’ve been consistent.”
While much of his confidence was built on his own performance across the weekend, Norris acknowledged that it also came from the progress that McLaren has made.
“I knew the car had potential. We obviously 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.”
Keeping his head down and staying focused
When asked whether this pole feels like a turning point, particularly after enduring a mixed first half of the season, Norris shared:
“Let’s just wait and see. I mean, it’s just a qualifying. It’s a long race ahead tomorrow, and it’s going to be a difficult one, so we’ll see. I mean, 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. Nice to see that that’s kind of carried over to this weekend.”
He continued by highlighting the importance of turning the team’s potential and hard work into race-weekend results: “We brought some of the 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 the work coming in or going in and rewards being taken out. I’m 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 have to obviously have a nice summer break, but then 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.”
Unlike Norris, teammate Piastri was unable to show such progress during the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP Qualifying after being impeded by Hamilton during his final lap.
Norris discusses his Sector 3 difficulties
Speaking further about his difficulties at the Hungaroring, Norris admitted that his troubles mostly centered on Sector 3. This was clear in his first Q3 lap as he suffered a snap of oversteer at Turn 14, sliding over the track and losing time. Ferrari have aced this section all weekend.
“I mean, it’s just been difficult all weekend in the last sector,” he began.“I think you don’t… just look at any on-board, and the last two corners, Turns 13 and 14, have been very, very difficult just to get right, to kind of… It feels like either you under-drive it, or you push it that little bit more, and you’re hustling, the rear’s letting go, push understeer, snaps. So, it was just very difficult to know how much to push or not push, and things like that, and also because the track’s just pretty broken up in places, and there’s a lot of different patches of tarmac in Turn 1 and Turn 12.
“I struggled to kind of get a consistent feeling of what was best or what the car was doing every time in these kinds of corners. Turn 1 and Turn 12, honestly, were our biggest losses to the Ferraris every single lap, in kind of just braking and cornering speed, and we just cannot match them in these kinds of very slow-speed corners, which we know from, you know, Monaco and various other tracks.
“We know that we struggle in these kinds of corners, but yeah, the tarmac’s certainly trickier than last year. It’s normally quite relatively high grip, very smooth. Certainly, this year it’s quite a bit trickier, with the newer tarmac, which is worse than the old tarmac, and makes it, yeah, quite difficult to get a good balance, basically. But it’s the same for everyone. It’s just a good challenge.”
Changing conditions help unlock McLaren’s full potential
After remaining cautious with McLaren’s new package following Friday’s sessions, Norris shared that the upgrades have now delivered a promising step forward.
Asked whether the team changed the car setup for Saturday, Norris revealed: “We pretty much changed nothing, honestly, from yesterday to today.”
He continued by explaining how the wind direction played a key role in their improvement, especially in the parts of the track where they had struggled before.
“Just the wind changed, like Charles said, and the wind direction favours the overall direction of the circuit. It makes Sector 2 a lot better. We were so quick in Sector 2 yesterday, honestly, but it certainly helped us in Sector 3 today because we certainly lack a rear grip compared to the Ferraris, in the very, very slow speed, or just overall load, I would say, in the very slow speed, and having the wind in a better direction for some of these corners and entry to the last corner limited our losses, let’s say. I think we still struggled there, compared to them.
“Sector 3 was always our worst sector by a huge margin. It was just less so today. So, we didn’t change the car, it’s just, we went from really, really struggling with the balance yesterday, with the rear, to just saying, let’s see what the wind does overnight and see how much it can help us out, and it certainly helped us out quite a big amount. So, it shows how sensitive the car is to the wind, and just, I think, the cars in general are sensitive to the wind. But because we suffered with rear, and we suffer with rear, I think, more than these cars, today suited us maybe a little bit more, just helped us out a little bit more.”
