Ricciardo qualified 13th in Budapest for AlphaTauri, with his team-mate and main reference Yuki Tsunoda failing to make it out of Q1 in 17th place.
The Australian admitted that returning to the cockpit had been a challenge, but he felt “relaxed” and “happy” doing it.
“Of course coming into the weekend I knew there would be a bit of a hill to climb,” he said. “And I was trying not to get caught up on how I go this weekend.
In a session that saw Pirelli’s ‘Alternative Tyre Allocation’ in play, which enforced hard tyres for Q1, medium tyres for Q2 and soft tyres for Q3, Hamilton navigated the precarious opening exchanges to reach the top 10 shootout, where he bagged his first pole in 34 events (Saudi Arabia 2021).
Hamilton’s improvement on his second run demoted Verstappen – who could not find more time – to second by just 0.003s, with Norris eight hundredths further back in third, supported by rookie team mate Oscar Piastri in another strong showing from McLaren.
Lando Norris will start third on Sunday and was just 0.085s off Hamilton's pole time, with team-mate Oscar Piastri alongside him as McLaren locked out the second row to continue their fine form.
George Russell - last year's pole sitter - starts 18th after being the big-name exit of Q1.
F1 rolls into Budapest, Hungary, for the front end of a back-to-back this weekend ahead of its normal summer break. An eight-time race-winner will rejoin the grid, a new qualifying format is being trialed and, as will be the case for the rest of the season, Max Verstappen enters as the overwhelming favorite.
He conceded that the hot weather and tight and twisty nature of the track made for a physical challenge in his first race back: “I think physically for sure I'm going to feel it more than the others. They're a little more conditioned this year, but I know that it is what it is for now.
“I feel good now, and actually I can move my neck pretty good. So I think so far so good, but 70 laps around here and in this heat, even when you are in race fitness, it's always one of the tougher ones.
“Here and Singapore, they're probably the two toughest. So that's another thing, Red Bull like challenging us, 'Yeah, Daniel just next week jump in and do it in Budapest'. But it's all good, I enjoy it.”
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