F1: Verstappen on the back foot after shocking Saturday in Hungary

It has been a completely unpredictable weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix so far. The results have been changing literally with the tide, with Mercedes driver George Russell securing pole position on Saturday. Furthermore, championship leader Max Verstappen is all the way down in 10th place after a miserable qualifying session.

The biggest shock was how Mercedes turned things around after having been a second off the pace of the lead cars on Friday. The Williams cars were also unbelievably quick in practice after bringing up the rear for most of the season so far.

However, on Saturday, Williams fell right back down the order as expected, but the Mercedes cars were shockingly quick. In fact, this is the first pole for the Mercedes team throughout the season so far. Prior to this weekend, they had consistently been over seven tenths of a second off the pace.

Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were strong as usual, taking the top two spots before Russell's stunning lap knocked them off pole. Hamilton, however, was not able to capitalise on the improvement, taking his Mercedes only up to P7.

The Red Bulls faced a disastrous session, with Sergio Perez missing out on Q3 after initially having a lap time deleted and then reinstated once more. Unfortunately, he was not able to improve on his lap to make it into the top 10.

Verstappen did make it into Q3, but problems in his car prevented him from logging a proper flying lap. He spent most of the session screaming into his team radio as he struggled to find a solution to an engine problem that he could not shake off.

There will be a lot of discussions in the Red Bull garage overnight for sure, but Mercedes will be cautiously celebrating. Meanwhile, Ferrari have a prime opportunity to slash their deficit from championship leaders Red Bull. However, they have been indecisive when it comes to pulling the trigger on team orders. If they allow their drivers to fight for position in Hungary, they may end up handing Russell the victory and missing the chance to gain maximum points.