Charles Leclerc will start the Hungarian Grand Prix in pole position after taking a surprising P1 for Scuderia Ferrari, beating the favourites McLaren in qualifying.
The Papaya had led both Q1 and Q2 by some margin, and Lando Norris had set a time of one minute, 14.8 seconds in the intermediate stage – but neither of them got anywhere close to that pace in their final runs in Q3.
Leclerc, meanwhile, produced a time of one minute, 15.372 seconds on his final attempt to take provisional pole, but both McLaren drivers went slower in the opening sector; Norris improved slightly to ensure he got closer to Oscar Piastri, but the championship leader could not improve, due to the change in wind direction.
Despite missing out on pole, Piastri will join Leclerc – who was evidently surprised by the result over the team radio – on the front row, while Norris has George Russell alongside him on the second row as the cooling conditions ensured Mercedes was in the mix.
Aston Martin impressed and secured fifth and sixth on the grid. Fernando Alonso was briefly ahead of Norris before the McLaren driver did his final lap, and was just 0.109 seconds off Leclerc’s pole pace. Lance Stroll lines up behind him, ahead of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who made Q3 for the third time in four races.
Max Verstappen could only find a time good enough for eighth on the grid, marginally ahead of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar, who completed the top ten.
Lewis Hamilton was the biggest elimination in Q2 – the Ferrari driver ended the first runs of the session in P11, but had seemingly got himself into the top ten with his second effort.
But his time of one minute, 15.702 seconds was beaten by a series of drivers behind him, and was pushed further down the grid order when Verstappen and Bortoleto improved late on in the session.
Their laps also pushed Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman out of the reckoning for Q3, as the Mercedes driver complained of no rear end. He qualified P11 for the race, with Bearman P12 and Hamilton P13.
Carlos Sainz and Franco Colapinto swapped places late on, but never posed a real threat to break out of Q2.
Lawson dropped Yuki Tsunoda out of Q1 at the final moment, even though the Red Bull driver was less than 0.2 seconds off teammate Verstappen.
Tsunoda was joined by Pierre Gasly in the drop zone, who was out-qualified by Colapinto for the second time this season. Esteban Ocon had been troubled by a loose screw embedded in the surface of his right-front tyre and only qualified P18 for Haas.
Nico Hulkenberg and Alexander Albon will provisionally occupy the final row on the grid. The latter looked to have a distinctly loose Williams underneath him, and was beaten handily by teammate Sainz in the session.
So a surprising pole position for Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver admitted he will not be that competitive compared to the McLarens at the Hungaroring, and yet Charles managed to qualify on pole. It will be interesting if he can stay in front of the Papayas as the McLaren is faster.
Hungarian Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:15.372
2 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:15.398
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:15.413
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:15.425
5 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:15.481
6 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:15.498
7 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber 1:15.725
8 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:15.728
9 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:15.821
10 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls 1:15.915
11 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:15.694
12 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:15.702
13 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:15.781
14 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:16.159
15 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:16.386
16 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:15.899
17 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:15.966
18 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:16.023
19 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:16.081
20 Alexander Albon Williams 1:16.223
Charles Leclerc grabbed pole position in dramatic circumstances at the end of Saturday’s Qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, pulling a lap out of the bag to beat McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
After drops of rain in Q2, and with track conditions appearing to fall away, Leclerc produced a stunning time of 1m 15.372s on his final Q3 lap to overhaul previous session leaders Piastri and Norris by a matter of thousandths.
George Russell was another driver to impress amid dropping temperatures and rising wind levels, putting his Mercedes fourth, while Aston Martin built on their strong practice pace to take P5 and P6 with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll respectively.
Kick Sauber also had more reasons to celebrate with Gabriel Bortoleto’s run to seventh – the Brazilian’s final lap enough to beat reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, who faced a tricky session aboard his Red Bull.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/leclerc-edges-out-piastri-and-norris-for-shock-pole-position-in-hungary.2Jfzs5jky9IUm16RxCftkn
Charles Leclerc was left distinctly flabbergasted by his own run to a “most surprising” Formula 1 pole at the Hungarian Grand Prix, having claimed that qualifying had felt “horrible” until he’d managed to reach Q3.
The Monegasque was on the cusp of the drop zone during Q2, but managed to dig out a lap good enough to progress to the final stage – just as team-mate Lewis Hamilton fell out of the top 10.
And, after the opening runs of Q3, Leclerc was sixth in the order – but the drivers had noted that the wind direction had changed significantly for the final stage of qualifying.
Leclerc’s aim was to secure a clean lap to ensure he could make his way up the order; he did so to claim provisional pole with a 1m15.372s, but this was still shy of the 1m14s that the McLarens had logged in Q2.
However, neither Lando Norris nor Oscar Piastri were able to reprise their form from that session as the change in conditions appeared to disadvantage the brace of MCL39s.
“Today is a day where I don’t understand anything anymore about the sport,” Leclerc said. “I mean, honestly, qualifying felt horrible from the first lap to maybe the penultimate lap. Everything felt out of place.
“It really felt like we had done a step backwards from FP3. And in terms of competitiveness: Q1, I was on the limit, barely made it to Q2. Q2, I was on the limit and I did quite a big mistake in Turn 4. It wasn’t easy to get to Q3.
“And then Q3, the conditions changed for everybody. I basically just did a clean lap, and I think it was a really good lap because those conditions were very difficult to get everything right. And I did, but I was really happy about the lap.
“And it’s probably the most surprising pole position I’ve ever done. I think after FP3 it wouldn’t have been so surprising but, after Q1 and Q2, I really thought we would struggle to get into the top five even. So I’m very happy.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/charles-leclerc-on-shock-hungarian-gp-pole-i-dont-understand-anything-about-f1-anymore/10747813/
Charles Leclerc delivered a surprising performance during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, leaving championship leader Oscar Piastri sat behind the Ferrari driver as he will start from second place on the grid.
After McLaren’s commanding performance so far this weekend, with both drivers, Lando Norris and his Australian team-mate, trading leads during the weekend’s practice sessions, no one expected a Ferrari to land itself on pole. While Piastri was still up on Norris, Charles Leclerc pipped him to the post with a surprising lap at the end of the session that saw him on pole.
Speaking after qualifying, the McLaren driver explained that changing weather conditions caught him off guard.
“Yeah, I think the wind changed a lot. It always sounds so pathetic, blaming things on the wind, but the wind basically did a 180 from Q2 to Q3, and yeah, it just meant a lot of the corners felt completely different,” he admitted.
“My first lap in Q3 felt pretty terrible because I wasn’t used to it, and then I thought the second lap was a lot better, but it was even slower,” he continued. “So, yeah, just difficult to judge in those conditions and, you know, maybe not the best execution, but I was a bit surprised that we couldn’t go quicker than that.”
Leading the drivers’ standings by 16 points over Norris, the driver praised this newfound performance from Leclerc despite McLaren expecting to finish with a front-row lockout.
“Charles has been quick all weekend and even this morning he was closer than we expected, and yeah, I mean things just changed a little bit and I guess he did a very good job, so, yeah, well done to him. I wasn’t expecting to be second to a Ferrari this weekend, but, yeah, he’s done a good job.
“So, it’s gonna be a fun race tomorrow with a bit more involved.”
2024 saw Oscar Piastri take his maiden Formula 1 win at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and the driver remains optimistic for tomorrow’s race.
“So, you know, second is still a decent spot to start. So yeah, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/oscar-piastri-shocked-by-ferrari-pole-as-he-blames-wind-direction-for-terrible-qualifying/10747785/
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has confirmed what went wrong for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
After dominating the timing sheets throughout the three practice sessions in Hungary, with Norris going fastest in practice 1 and 2 and Piastri fastest in practice 3, McLaren lost out to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in qualifying.
With Piastri set to start from pole position, Piastri will line up beside him in P2 and Norris behind in P3. Stella revealed that the wind changes during qualifying impacted the team’s performance while speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the session.
“Well, having seen the performance of the car in practice and also in Q1 and Q2, we were certainly looking forward to trying to lockout the first row on the grid, but today the conditions were very weird, very dependent on the wind.
“There was a change of conditions from Q2 to Q3, and I have to say we paid a bit of a price. I think our drivers might have been also a bit cautious because you never knew what kind of grip you find for each corner, so we went four tenths slower than Q2, while Leclerc went faster and he deserved the pole position.
“Well done to Leclerc and well done to Ferrari.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/andrea-stella-reveals-what-went-wrong-for-mclaren-in-hungarian-gp-qualifying/10747804/