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Lando Norris was delighted with his performance throughout Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix as the British racer qualified fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race.

The McLaren F1 Team racer showed good speed throughout the three segments of Qualifying at the Hungaroring and was less than four-tenths of a second away from the pole time set by George Russell, but he felt he did as much as he could with the MCL36.

Starting from the second row of the grid on Sunday, Norris hopes to be able to at least maintain his position and maybe capitalise on mistakes or issues for those ahead to fight for his second podium finish of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

“A very good position, I wouldn’t have said we expected to be P4 but I’ll take it!” said Norris.  “Very good job by the team, ahead of the guys we want to be ahead of.

“It was a good lap, so I’m happy with it. I don’t think it could have been much better, position-wise, so happy with today and we’ll try to keep it up for tomorrow.”

In 2019, Grant Enfinger won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season championship only to be eliminated from the playoffs after just one round. Three years later, it only took one race for him to clinch a spot in the Round of 8.

Enfinger survived a chaotic ending to Friday’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park to win his first race of 2022 and the first NASCAR national series event at the track since 2011. Multiple late wrecks slowed the race also bought Enfinger time to move through the order after crew chief Jeff Hensley elected to change four tyres; on newer tyres than his peers and receiving enough breaks due to the cautions, Enfinger passed regular season champ Zane Smith on the final lap for the victory.

“Well, we’re finally moving forward at all! This is my first win since [Martinsville],” said Enfinger. “[We had a] terrible [regular season], not because of these guys behind me, you know we’ve just been a little off as an organisation. […] We’ve been working so hard because we’ve been sucking. It hurts to say it, but we have had a terrible season to this point.

“We had a great #23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet all day. It felt like every time we got to the lead, the caution came out. It put Hensley in a bad spot, but I knew from experience to just trust his gut. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut every time I kept trying to edge him on, but I had one of my Pop Pop’s Bible verses in there, so it’s a pretty special night and I’m definitely very, very thankful.

“For four years, [Hensley and I] rode the roller coaster together. We’ve been in the lows, we missed the playoffs in our first year together, but we haven’t missed it since. We’ve had some success together, he’s a racer and I’m a racer, and neither of us are very smart, but we put it together tonight.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. saw George Russell deny him a second pole position of the season in the dying moment of Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday, and the Spaniard admitted he could have done better when it mattered on his final push lap.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver felt he left time on the table and paid the price as Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Russell put together a great lap to take top spot by 0.044 seconds.

Despite losing out on pole, Sainz feels Ferrari have a strong chance of a big result on Sunday at the Hungaroring, with the pace of his F1-75 appearing fast throughout the weekend, and this coupled with the fact the two Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers will start tenth and eleventh.

“I’m not very happy with the final result as I feel I could have done a better lap on the final attempt,” said Sainz.  “However, I prefer to focus on the positives: we are in a good position for tomorrow, I’ve been comfortable in the car all weekend and we keep making steps in the right direction.

“I’m confident we can carry the good pace of Friday into the race, so we’ll definitely go for it. Congrats to George on his first pole. He did a very good lap today and I look forward to the battle tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon says the BWT Alpine F1 Team can be pleased with their efforts during Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix as they locked out row three of the grid for Sunday’s race.

The Frenchman, the surprise winner of this event twelve months ago, felt it was a solid result at the Hungaroring for a team that has made ‘really good improvements’ to its car across the weekend and gave him a chance of fighting for a place high up the grid.

“I’m pleased with today’s Qualifying as it’s a very solid result, so thanks to the team for their hard work in making some really good improvements over the course of the weekend,” said Ocon.  

“We’ve equalled our best Qualifying result of the year, so we’re definitely satisfied with our performance.”

Ocon says the job on Sunday is to get ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris after the Briton managed to out-qualify them in fourth, as the two teams battle it out for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

George Russell admitted he was feeling ‘over the moon’ after securing his maiden FIA Formula 1 World Championship pole position at the end of a gripping Qualifying session at the Hungaroring on Saturday.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver had not looked a contender for top spot after relatively difficult practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, but he found the pace in his W13 when it mattered as he snatched pole away from Carlos Sainz Jr.

Russell admitted he does not fully understand how Mercedes were able to turn around their fortunes in Qualifying, but he will have the honour of leading the field away off the grid on Sunday afternoon for the first time.

“I’m over the moon and absolutely buzzing,” said Russell.  “Yesterday was disastrous for us and probably the worst Friday of the season.

“The team was working so hard last night and we were able to make a big step forward. In Formula 1 there are so many fine margins and when you get in that perfect window, your car will just fly, which we managed to do in today’s conditions.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s George Russell took pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix, beating out the favourites of Scuderia Ferrari with an incredible lap in the session’s final seconds. 

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz will join Russell on the front row, with team-mate Charles Leclerc just behind in third. Lando Norris showed his hand with a fourth place finish, while the Constructors’ leaders of Red Bull Racing encountered obstacles that saw them all the way down in tenth and eleventh after an exciting saturday session.

Q1: Mercedes shows their pace while Vettel, AlphaTauri and Williams are left in the cold

The wet conditions of Free Practice Three may not have rolled over to Qualifying, but the cold temperatures continued to play a role as the drivers began their battle for grid position at the Hungaroring. The track was reported to be twenty degrees cooler than on Friday, which played a big role in the session. 

Red Bull and Mercedes rose to the top of the timing sheet in the first minutes, while the Ferraris, which had proven to be quick in practice, held off from joining the action until later in Q1. Norris showed his potential early on in the session, splitting the Red Bulls in second place.

Once Ferrari got out on track, they found themselves near the top by their second flying laps, with Sainz in second and Leclerc in third with about six minutes to go.

Stoffel Vandoorne continues to not put a foot out of line this season, as the Drivers’ Championship leader extended his lead after a brilliant second-place finish at the London E-Prix.

The Belgian driver had a solid Saturday at the ExCeL Centre, after claiming a second-place start for the first race of the weekend. Vandoorne converted his second-place start into a second-place finish, where he couldn’t quite get the better of race winner Jake Dennis. The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver finished comfortably in second, with his team-mate Nyck de Vries rounding off the podium.

Whilst Vandoorne claimed his tenth consecutive points finish of the season, his title rivals faltered. Mitch Evans was the only one of the three other title contenders to finish in the points; however, the New Zealander could only salvage sixth. Edoardo Mortara and Jean-Éric Vergne finished outside the points, putting the pair almost out of realistic title contention.

Vandoorne was actually the only top-four driver in the standings to make it into the Qualifying duels, something he may be hoping will repeat itself on Sunday.

Following the race, Vandoorne spoke exclusively to The Checkered Flag, where he discussed the race and revealed that he “maximised everything”.

Jake Dennis led from start to finish at the London E-Prix, to claim a superb home victory. Stoffel Vandoorne claimed second to seriously extend his Drivers’ Championship lead, with only Mitch Evans managing to finish in the points from the chasing three drivers in the title-fight.

As the lights went out there was immediate drama, as Sam Bird was spun-round on the exit of Turn Two, causing chaos behind. Bodywork flew everywhere as the Brit was forced into an instant retirement, whilst title challenger Edoardo Mortara was forced into the pits for a new front-wing.

Mortara returned to the circuit no where near the next nearest car, replays showed that it was the Swiss driver who tagged Bird, after being sandwiched.

At the front they remained as they were, with Dennis leading from Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries. Elsewhere, the DS Techeetah duo made contact not once but twice, with António Félix Da Costa clearly having no intention of supporting his team-mates championship bid.

Sérgio Sette Câmara was a man a mission in the opening ten minutes, after performing an incredible move on De Vries at Turn One, moving the Brazilian up to third. Bird’s bodywork remained on the circuit bizarrely, with the amount of debris on the track soon increasing, as Oliver Rowland lost a huge chunk of carbon fibre down the main-straight.

Joel Granfors closed the gap to Luke Browning in the GB3 Championship title race with a win in Race 1 at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon.

All three Hitech GP cars were disqualified from Qualifying for a technical infringement, meaning Championship leader Browning started all three races from the back.

Granfors and Callum Voisin went side-by-side through Maggotts and Becketts, while Bryce Aron was launched over the exit kerb at Abbey as he got past Mikkel Grundtvig.

Browning made up an incredible ten positions on the opening lap, sitting in P11 halfway through Lap 2 from P23 on the grid.

Zak Taylor went around the outside of Cian Shields at Brooklands and finished it off into Luffield, but Shields kept it pinned as he ran wide through Copse and built the gap by running off-track.

Ahead of this weekend’s thirteenth and fourteenth round of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at the London E-Prix, ABT Sportsline announced that they’ll be returning to the championship in 2023, but with their own team. As well as this, Mahindra have agreed to supply powertrains to ABT for the new Gen3 cars.

After leaving the sport at the end of 2021, ABT are coming back to the championship with their own privateer team, which will be backed by seven years worth of experience. Mahindra are joining Porsche and Nissan as a powertrain supplier from next season, further increasing their incredible involvement in the championship.

Mahindra are not only net carbon zero, but they have also raced in every single Formula E event.

Dilbagh Gill CEO and Team Principal at Mahindra Racing is “honoured” to be able to supply ABT with powertrains for next season.

“ABT Sportsline is one of the top-level race outfits in the world and we’ve long-enjoyed racing competitively against them. It’s an honour to be able to take our powertrain, developed in partnership with ZF, and support the team in its return to the FIA ABB Formula E World Championship.

Nicholas Latifi topped the wet third free practice session of the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary.

Charles Leclerc finished in second position, 0.661 seconds slower than the Williams Racing team driver. Alexander Albon finished in third position at the end of the session.

The Williams Racing team surprised the paddock as both their drivers were in the top three positions on the time charts in the wet session.

The third free practice session at the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest started under wet conditions with air temperature at 20 degrees C and track temperature at 28 degrees C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Caio Collet took his first FIA Formula 3 Championship win at the Hungaroring on Saturday morning, winning the Sprint Race in mixed conditions.

After starting fourth, the Brazilian driver cleared off after making his way through the field in the wet to lead home Franco Colapinto and Kush Maini for a double MP Motorsport podium.

Oliver Goethe led the field away with a rolling start in full-wet conditions, but ran wide through the final corner, allowing Colapinto to get through into Turn 1.

Isack Hadjar and Collet took advantage to fill the remaining podium positions, while Jak Crawford moved past Victor Martins for fifth.

David Vidales went into the wall at Turn 3 to bring the safety car back out on Lap 1; Colapinto was on his toes at the restart to get past Hadjar, also opening the door for Collet to go through.

Jake Dennis continued his impressive start to Saturday at the London E-Prix, by claiming pole position at his home event. Stoffel Vandoorne sealed a strong second place start for the first race, whereas all of his title rivals failed to make it to the duels.

Group A

Group A featured some of the most in-form drivers’ in the championship at the moment, with Vandoorne, Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy all featuring in the first group. Also in the first group was Sérgio Sette Câmara, Pascal Wehrlein, Sam Bird, Lucas Di Grassi, Maximilian Günther, Robin Frijns, Alexander Sims and Oliver Turvey.

After all the drivers’ first flying-laps, it was New York E-Prix winner Cassidy who led the way, with Sette Câmara, Vandoorne and Evans within the top-four. Grip was an evident issue at the ExCeL Centre especially at Turn One, as too were the bumps towards Turn Sixteen.

Times tumbled down into the low 1:14s, with Vandoorne setting the pace as the only driver in Group A to break into the 1:13s. The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver secured top in Group A, with Camara, Cassidy and Di Grassi joining him into the Quarter-Finals.

However, during Group B it was announced that Di Grassi’s lap-time had been deleted for impeding, Günther was therefore promoted into fourth and into his first duel of the season. Di Grassi was furious, with the ROKIT Venturi Racing driver being seen slamming the garage wall in anger.

Luke Browning and Callum Voisin took pole position for Races 1 and 2 respectively as the GB3 Championship visited Silverstone for the second time this season.

Nico Christodoulou was the first to set a representative time, with a 1:54.771, before Arden Motorsport team-mate Alex Connor and Carlin‘s Roberto Faria pushed him down to third.

Championship challenger Joel Granfors went up to second with his third lap, between Faria and Max Esterson.

Bryce Aron and John Bennett shot up the order at just over half-distance, as Tommy Smith and Nick Gilkes also improved in the midfield.

Christodoulou had slipped down the standings after his first lap, before going back up to seventh, as Mikkel Grundtvig and Branden Oxley also improved.

Sebastian Vettel felt his Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team had a relatively good day at the Hungaroring on Friday, although he admits the AMR22 car is still quite difficult to drive.

The German, who earlier this week announced he would be retiring from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship at the end of the season, was eleventh quickest in the first session in Hungary before improving to seventh in the second, but it was far from a straightforward day for him.

Aston Martin have brought an updated rear wing to the Hungaroring this weekend on top of the upgrades they’ve brought to the car in recent races, and Vettel hopes to ensure he has a strong weekend on what will be his final Hungarian Grand Prix.

“On the face of it, our pace today looked quite good – our long runs were quite competitive, and I think we did a solid job as a team, but the car is still quite difficult to drive,” said Vettel.

“We have recently struggled to qualify in dry conditions so I am optimistic that tomorrow’s expected heavy rain will provide us with an opportunity.