silverguide.site –

The margins were tiny and for a moment it seemed Lewis Hamilton had finally found his edge in qualifying, only for the seven-time champion to be beaten by but a breath. The defending world champion, Lando Norris, pipped him to pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix in a thrilling, dramatic contest.

Worse was to follow for Hamilton as his very real chance of converting a front-row start to a win in his hugely competitive Ferrari took a severe blow as he was penalised three grid places for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during their final laps. Hamilton will start from fifth place.

Norris took the top spot for McLaren by one-hundredth of a second from Hamilton’s Ferrari, but the latter’s place on the front row remained in doubt, as he was under investigation by the FIA.

Hamilton said he had only been informed by the team that Piastri was closing on him when he was already right behind him and that he did not know anyone was still on hot lap behind him. Nonetheless, after qualifying, the stewards ruled he was at fault and imposed the grid penalty.

“I was told when he was at the apex behind me, so I had no idea he was coming,” Hamilton said. “I thought everyone came out behind me. I was the first out so I thought everyone had finished their lap, and I think Charles was the car that was behind me when I left the pit lane, as far as I was aware. So, yeah, crazy, because it had been clean, and obviously it wasn’t intentional.”

Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc was in third, with the championship leader, Kimi Antonelli, in fourth for Mercedes, but the Italian was investigated for failing to slow under yellow flags and also given a three-place penalty. Antonelli leads Hamilton by 45 points and his teammate, Russell, by 50 points in the championship.