Lewis Hamilton held his breath for one stunning lap that ended a 595-day wait for pole. His giant exhale in Hungary was shared by a watching world.

For him, joy after all the travails that have beset him and his faltering Mercedes team since his life was turned upside down in the controversial Abu Dhabi finale of 2021.

For us, an unexpected punctuation to the monotony of Max Verstappen’s one-man conjuring act.

With Hamilton’s late and bold lap pipping the Red Bull hero by three-thousandths of a second, the two great rivals will today share the front row of the grid for the first time since that night of infamy in the desert. It is time to switch back on.

Hamilton let out exclamations of delight over the radio and held his helmeted-head in his hands, before standing on his Mercedes and punching his fists in the air to the delight of the fans. He then managed a brief handshake with Verstappen.

This was Hamilton’s ninth pole here — more than anyone has notched at any single track. It was the 104th of his career and one of the more unexpected, at least until the third practice session when he led the timing screens. Only a day before he had bemoaned his machinery as at its worst. What a topsy-turvy weekend it had been with a reduced tyre allocation shaking away some old certainties. But it was still hard to fathom exactly why the Hungaroring had so played into Mercedes’ hands.

Not in dispute, though, is the expert manner in which the seven-time world champion exploited his opportunity (while team-mate George Russell qualified 18th, some traffic impeding his progress — a muddle all round.)

Nico Rosberg waxed lyrical of his erstwhile friend and rival, saying: ‘I witnessed these special moments Lewis used to have. Today was one of those.

‘This lap is like perfection. It’s art. Only Lewis Hamilton can do that. No one could have even gone a hundredth quicker. How awesome.’

Hamilton arrived in the press conference with a jaunty step, noting how he was pleased to be back on the middle seat that belongs to the fastest man.

‘He has been hogging it for a little while,’ he observed, looking at Verstappen, before going on to challenge the possibilities of respiratory science.

‘I don’t think I breathed for a whole lap,’ he claimed of his 76sec blitz. ‘I was so out of breath at the end. It is an extraordinary feeling. It feels like my first pole. It is hard to explain how special it is.

‘We didn’t think we could fight for pole today. Red Bull were looking so strong. Then Q2 looked decent all of a sudden — we were second — and when we got to Q3 and I was a 10th behind Max I knew I could find more time on my final lap. It was epic.

‘It has been a difficult year-and-a-half on a personal level and as a team collectively. We have had so many ideas trying to find the right path and maintain motivation and keep everyone driven. That has been a challenge for all of us. It has been a team effort and they deserve this today.

‘Last year we were nowhere. I have always had belief that if we apply ourselves the right way we’d get there and it was just a question of how long that would be.

‘We started this season with the twin sister of the previous year’s car. I had no confidence in it. It was like treading on eggshells. This one felt identical and that was worrying.

‘We have been on this journey of undoing our wrong decisions and it has taken far longer than we hoped but we are seeing benefits. I am as keen to win tomorrow as I was getting my first in Montreal in 2007.’

What chance of that dream being realised? A decent one, it seems. He loves the Hungaroring, having triumphed on the track a record eight times. It was also the scene of his maiden win for Mercedes a decade ago.

Good news for his old team, McLaren, for whom Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will start third and fourth, underlining their progress in Silverstone a fortnight ago. Red Bull’s under-pressure Sergio Perez qualified ninth.

So neither Lewis nor Max has his team-mate near him. Like the old days, it is the two amigos head-to-head.