Lewis Hamilton clinched his 90th career pole position at the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, near Budapest, Hungary. Valtteri Bottas completed the Mercedes 1-2 as the rain stayed away from the qualifying session.
Lance Stroll and Sergio Pérez, the two Racing Point team drivers, qualified on the second row. Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc had to settle for fifth and sixth positions.
Max Verstappen, the pole sitter of last year, had to be content with seventh position. Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly rounded off the top 10 positions.
The qualifying session started under overcast skies with a little drizzle in some parts of the track in the opening session. 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).
Q1: Sergio Pérez tops session with track evolution at the end of the session
The eighteen-minute long first session of qualifying got underway with all the drivers on the track immediately under overcast skies. Hamilton and Bottas went to the top of the time charts in the initial exchanges.
But as the slightly damp track dried out at the end of the session there was dramatic track evolution and Pérez went to the top of the time charts with team-mate Stroll just behind him. The Williams drivers impressed as George Russell in ninth position and Nicholas Latifi in fifteenth position made it into the second qualifying session.
Q1 dropzone: Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, Romain Grosjean, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kimi Räikkönen
Q2: Alexander Albon Hits Trouble
The fifteen-minute long second session started with the threat of rain receding. The Mercedes drivers led by Hamilton set their fastest laps on the medium compound tyres.
The two Racing Point drivers, Stroll and Pérez, also in a bold strategy move set their fastest laps on the medium tyres and will start the race on them. Albon who has struggled all weekend was the biggest casualty as he was eliminated in this session.
Daniel Ricciardo was knocked out in the dying minutes of the session by Gasly and joined his team-mate Esteban Ocon in the dropzone.
Q2 dropzone : Daniel Ricciardo, George Russell, Alexander Albon, Esteban Ocon and Nicholas Latifi
Q3: Mercedes drivers lockout front row with Racing Point drivers behind them
The final all important twelve-minute long shootout started with the Mercedes drivers setting the pace. Both drivers immediately went out on the soft tyres and went to the top of the time charts on their first flying lap. Hamilton took provisional pole position with a lap time of 1m13.613s. Bottas was 0.311 seconds behind him.
Stroll was third behind them even as Pérez’s first flying lap was deleted for exceeding track limits. In the final flying laps, Hamilton improved even as Bottas closed the gap and finished just 0.107 seconds behind him.
Pérez joined Stroll on the second row with his final lap. Vettel with a good lap finished ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen in seventh position was joined by Norris on the fourth row.
Sainz was again outqualified by Norris as he finished in ninth position. Gasly endured through power unit issues to finish in tenth position.
Top 10 after Q3: Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll, Sergio Pérez, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly.
| Pos | No | Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 01:14.907 | 01:14.261 | 01:13.447 | 22 |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 01:15.474 | 01:14.530 | 01:13.554 | 20 |
| 3 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point BWT Mercedes | 01:14.895 | 01:15.176 | 01:14.377 | 22 |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point BWT Mercedes | 01:14.681 | 01:15.394 | 01:14.545 | 22 |
| 5 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 01:15.455 | 01:15.131 | 01:14.774 | 20 |
| 6 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 01:15.793 | 01:15.006 | 01:14.817 | 20 |
| 7 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda | 01:15.495 | 01:14.976 | 01:14.849 | 21 |
| 8 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Renault | 01:15.444 | 01:15.085 | 01:14.966 | 20 |
| 9 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | McLaren Renault | 01:15.281 | 01:15.267 | 01:15.027 | 21 |
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri Honda | 01:15.767 | 01:15.508 | 14 | |
| 11 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 01:15.848 | 01:15.661 | 14 | |
| 12 | 63 | George Russell | Williams Mercedes | 01:15.585 | 01:15.698 | 14 | |
| 13 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Red Bull Racing Honda | 01:15.722 | 01:15.715 | 16 | |
| 14 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 01:15.719 | 01:15.742 | 14 | |
| 15 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Mercedes | 01:16.105 | 01:16.544 | 14 | |
| 16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 01:16.152 | 9 | ||
| 17 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri Honda | 01:16.204 | 9 | ||
| 18 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 01:16.407 | 8 | ||
| 19 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 01:16.506 | 12 | ||
| 20 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 01:16.614 | 12 |
