Defending world champion Fernando Alonso edged McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton to take the pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Alonso timed 1 minute, 19.674 seconds on the 4.381km Hungaroring circuit with Hamilton at 1 minute 19.781 seconds.
It was the 17th career pole for Alonso but only the second of the season. The other one was at Monaco, a race he won.
Nick Heidfeld of BMW-Sauber was third and Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was fourth.
"I think we have been very competitive all weekend from the first session to qualifying," Alonso said. "The last two grand prix we didn't have a chance to beat Ferrari under dry conditions and I think we can do it here."
Hamilton said a delay in the pits cost him a chance to make another attempt at beating Alonso's time.
"It is just good to be back here and on the top and get through qualifying. We had a hard weekend last race," Hamilton said.
The rookie, who leads the overall season standings, crashed in qualifying at the European Grand Prix and came in ninth after nine podium finishes in a row.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who has had four pole positions this season and the fastest time in Saturday morning's practice, was just 14th with 1 minute 21.021 seconds. His team had to scramble and push his car back to the garage before his final run after Massa stopped in the pit lane.
Massa timed 1 minute 20.183 seconds about three hours earlier to lead Alonso in practice. At the opening race of the season Massa started 16th and came in third before winning two of the next three races.
Last year's winner here, Jenson Button of Honda, failed to make it past the first portion of the three-tiered qualifying session. He was 17th and the slowest six are dropped after the first 15 minutes.
Ferrari and McLaren have won all 10 races this season, with Alonso and Raikkonen having three wins apiece, and Hamilton and Massa getting two each.
Alonso is hoping to use today's race to overtake Hamilton for first place in the season standings.
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Arsenal stormed six points clear at the top of the English Premier League as Bukayo Saka and Viktor Gyokeres put Fulham to the sword in a 3-0 win, while West Ham United’s defeat at Brentford offered Tottenham Hotspur a lifeline in the battle for survival. The Gunners have stumbled toward the finish line in their quest for a first league title in 22 years, blowing a sizeable lead over Manchester City in a series of nervous displays. However, the return of Saka, making his first start in six weeks, freed up Mikel Arteta’s men in a dominant performance that shrugged
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final. Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year. Wu is also the second-youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990. “I have been trying