McLaren pair Lando Norris and Australia's Oscar Piastri locked out the front row for the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of points leader Max Verstappen after a stellar qualifying session for the British team on Saturday.
Norris is the double world champion's nearest rival, 84 points adrift, and will hope to slash the gap in Sunday's race.
Piastri was second quickest at +0.022, meaning a first McLaren front row since Brazil 2012 - wit Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button - and only their third in F1 history, with Verstappen having to settle for third on Sunday's grid.
Rain drops in Budapest changed the dynamic after Norris had topped the timesheets in sunny final practice earlier on Saturday.
But the Briton, who won in Miami this year, set 1min 15.227sec in Hungaroring qualifying for his second pole of the season as McLaren continued their huge leap in performance this year.
"If I don't [win] then it's not been a good day. It's obvious what the aim is for tomorrow," said Norris, who was second in Budapest last year behind Verstappen.
"We are in the best position for whatever the conditions throw at us, I'm looking forward to it. Two cars on the front row, we can control it from there so as long as we stay where we are, we will be happy."
Daniel Ricciardo, RB's Australian driver, was ninth, 1:16.447 behind Norris.
Verstappen's Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez spun into the wall in Q1, prompting a red flag. He therefore qualified down in 16th as a miserable season dragged on for the Mexican, who is poised to leave the team next year or even sooner.
Mercedes driver George Russell, who took pole in Britain last time out, got caught up in the fall-out and ended up 17th after a mix-up over fuel levels.
Mercedes did have high expectations as they bid for a third win on the spin but Lewis Hamilton could muster only fifth
"It was a total under-performance from literally everybody involved here," said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.
Traffic in the pits caused more problems for drivers in Q2 as teams again got their timings wrong, with Haas driver Nico Hülkenberg in 11th among those caught out. "We're getting done here. This is taking too long," he said.
A heavy crash for Yuki Tsunoda in Q3 suspended the session with just 2.13 minutes left, meaning Verstappen opted not to go out again with rain in the air despite having upgrades on his Red Bull.
The Dutchman has gone two races without a win after Mercedes duo Russell and Hamilton won in Austria and Britain respectively.
Verstappen said: "I tried, the whole weekend we have been a little bit behind, and I think that was also the case in qualifying.
"I tried to make it as close as possible but unfortunately just not enough, a bit difficult to pinpoint why that is, I would have liked a bit more grip but it's not there at the moment."
