Lewis Hamilton stated he never expected to take pole position from Verstappen after coming out on top in Saturday’s Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session.
It marks the first time since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that the seven-time world champion topped qualifying. It was also his record-extending 104th career pole.
The 38-year-old was clearly elated describing it like it was his first-ever pole after a lengthy drought.
“It’s been a crazy year and a half, I’ve lost my voice from shouting so much in the car,” Hamilton said after the qualifying session.
“It’s amazing, that feeling. I feel so grateful to be up here because we’ve worked so hard, we’ve been pushing so hard over this time to get a pole it feels like the first time.
“I didn’t expect us coming today to be fighting for pole. When I went into that last run I gave it absolutely everything, there was nothing left in it.”
LEWIS HAMILTON IS ON POLE!!!!! ????
The @MercedesAMGF1 driver puts in a SENSATIONAL lap to take the top spot in Budapest ????
Wow, wow and WOW!!!! #HungarianGP #F1 @LewisHamilton pic.twitter.com/IrRUzsysWR
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 22, 2023
Hamilton also weighed on Red Bull losing pole position for only the second time this year. The Mercedes driver believes the reigning constructors’ champion have slowed down a bit but still acknowledged the Austrian team remains the fastest car on race day.
“Honestly, I think they’ve slowed quite a bit from the beginning of the year,” Hamilton continued.
“I mean just look at the DRS, they don’t have the DRS advantage all of a sudden they used to have – where did that go? They just had an upgrade so we expected them to take another step. We heard it was around two-tenths or something like that so for them not to be able to extract that in qualifying was interesting.
“I think in the race they’re still the quickest and it will be very hard to beat them tomorrow. We’re just as surprised as everybody else. Interesting to see some of the deficits and how it’s changed from race to race and how we’ve all closed up.”
Hamilton is the most successful driver in the history of the Hungarian Grand Prix, winning a record eight races including three in a row from 2018 to 2020.
