George Russell, a Mercedes driver, astonished both himself and Formula 1 with a surprising first-place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were edged out by the Briton, while championship leader Max Verstappen finished 10th due to engine issues.
Lando Norris of McLaren finished fourth, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso of Alpine.
Lewis Hamilton, a teammate of Russell, finished eighth and was 0.765 seconds slower.
On his final run, Hamilton's DRS overtaking assistance failed. Prior to it, on their opening runs in the final session, he had behind Russell by less than 0.2 seconds.
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Russell did it, but how?
Russell defeated Sainz by 0.044 seconds to claim his first career pole in the most dramatic fashion. In third place, Leclerc was 0.146 seconds behind his teammate.
And because it sprang out of nowhere, it was much more stunning.
Mercedes struggled in Saturday's drenched final practice session in addition to being much off the pace on Friday.
Although he finished 0.463 seconds behind Sainz in the final session, Russell was second quickest after the first laps in qualifying, giving a hint as to what may be possible.
But on his penultimate lap, he added a new dimension, cutting his own time by 0.463 seconds.
Over the moon, Russell said. positively buzzing Our Friday last week was arguably the worst of the entire year. We weren't really sure which way to go until the final lap when I made mega-sized turns in Turns One and Two, which caused the lap time to keep increasing.
"We need to investigate it and see how that happened.
"We didn't get any points today, but we're still going for it."
It was not just a remarkable individual accomplishment but also a turning point for a squad that has had trouble this season with a weak vehicle.
As the season has gone on, Mercedes has made progress in managing it, but they had no idea going into Hungary that they may be competing for pole.
Sainz claimed he believed a few minor mistakes on his penultimate lap cost him the pole position. He praised Russell but acknowledged that he was a little little down.
Leclerc remarked: "It hasn't been a good day; I've been having a lot of trouble with the tyres and can hardly get them in the appropriate window. The pace is there; all we need to do is figure out what happened with the tyres, and we can return the following day."
Verstappen will have a fight on his hands to make up distance on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously tough, which may help to temper any disappointment Ferrari may feel at not qualifying on the front row.
After losing the lead at the French Grand Prix last weekend, Leclerc sits 63 points behind Verstappen in the standings. The Italian team now has a fantastic opportunity to reduce the Dutchman's lead.
Verstappen stated, "We made some very positive improvements, and the car was much nicer today, but we were unable to demonstrate it today due to the power issue. I still don't really know what it is, but I hope everything is fixable."
'I'm happy for George, it's his first pole and he truly deserves it. He did an amazing job. It's a shame we couldn't lock out the front row, that would have been amazing,' Hamilton said. 'It's the first time we've had a shot at the front row. I'm happy for George, it's his first pole and he truly deserves it.
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