After his brilliant win at the rain-soaked German Grand Prix last weekend, Max Verstappen had a near-perfect lap at the Hungarian GP to take the first pole position of his F1 career on Saturday.

The Red Bull's Dutch driver set a track record with one minute and 14.958 seconds and then beat it again with 1:14.572.

"Big thanks to the team, the car was flying," said Verstappen, who became the 100th F1 driver to take a pole. "This one was missing. ... It was only a matter of time."

It was another boost for the 21-year-old Verstappen, who won two of the past three races to creep into outside contention for the title race although defending champion Lewis Hamilton – who qualified in the third place behind Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas – remained comfortably ahead.

Given that the Hungaroring track is one of the toughest to overtake on, Verstappen is likely to clinch an eighth career F1 win on Sunday as he is in a good position. Verstappen's speed and racing nous can be seen from the fact that none of his wins have been from pole – and achieved with the third-fastest car in F1 behind Ferrari and ultra-dominant Mercedes.

Verstappen is the youngest driver to win an F1 race – he was 18 when he won the Spanish GP in 2016 – and is the fourth youngest to take the pole position. He sat behind Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc and record-holder Sebastian Vettel, who were all also 21.

Hamilton, the five-time F1 champion, was chasing a record-extending 88th career pole and record-equaling seventh at the Hungaroring circuit to match F1 great Michael Schumacher.

"Max did a great job. It kind of got away from me," Hamilton said. "But we're still in the fight. There's a long run down to Turn 1, so it's going to be very interesting. It's not the easiest place to overtake, but strategy will come into it."