Charles Leclerc stunned himself and runaway leaders McLaren with an exceptional late lap to end Ferrari’s barren qualifying run by claiming pole position for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Excelling on a circuit that on Thursday he had described as his worst of the year, the 27-year-old Monegasque clocked a best lap of one minute and 15.372 seconds to beat the champion team which had dominated every previous practice session.
“Wow, wow!, Mamma Mia!” exclaimed Leclerc after his beautifully-judged late lap on Saturday put him top in windy conditions at the Hungaroring and claim his first pole of the season for the Italian team.
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“Today, I don’t understand anything about F1! The whole of qualifying has been so extremely difficult – and when I say that I am not exaggerating.
“It was super difficult for us to get to Q2 and Q3, in Q3 the conditions changed a little bit and everything became a lot trickier and I knew I had to just do a clean lap to target third.
“But at the end of the day, it’s pole position and I definitely did not expect that. Honestly, I just don’t have any words for this. It’s one of my best poles and the most unexpected.”
While series leader Oscar Piastri and the Australian’s McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris found themselves unable to cope with changing conditions in the final minutes, Leclerc improved his lap time to snatch his unexpected pole.
It was his first at the Hungaroring, his first this year and first since last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku as well as the 27th of his career. It was Ferrari’s first pole in Hungary since Sebastian Vettel in 2017.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was fifth ahead of teammate Lance Stroll, the pair enjoying their best qualifying of the season, with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto seventh ahead of Red Bull’s four-time champion Max Verstappen and the two Racing Bulls rookies Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar.
The session produced the closest Q3 in Formula 1 history, with just 0.543s separating the top 10.
– Hamilton frustrated –
While Leclerc celebrated his and Ferrari’s success, teammate and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton struggled to swallow his disappointment after qualifying 12th and being knocked out in Q2.
“I’m useless,” said the 40-year-old Briton. “Absolutely useless. The team has no problem. You’ve seen the car on pole so they probably need to change driver.”
Hamilton’s frustration as he fights to find form after moving to Ferrari this year was clear as he ducked into the team motor home without removing his helmet.
But Leclerc had proved the potential of the Ferrari car with their recent upgrades package, even in what proved to be challenging changing conditions.
“I could feel it was changing a lot and I was on the lower side of the downforce so, when the rain started in Q2, I was hoping that it wouldn’t stay for long,” said Leclerc.
“It didn’t but the conditions changed which made everything very tricky and at the end we were on pole position!”
Looking ahead to the race, Leclerc said: “The start and Turn One will be key, but I have no idea how it will go. One thing for sure is that I will do absolutely everything in order to keep that first place!
“If we manage to do that then that should make our life easier for the rest of the race.”
Piastri said he had been unable to improve due to a change of wind direction in Q3.
“Charles has been quick all weekend and even this morning, he was closer than we expected,” he said.
“Things just changed a little bit — and I guess he did a very good job.
“Well done to him, but I wasn’t expecting to be second to a Ferrari this weekend! He’s done a good job and it’ll be a fun race tomorrow.”
Norris added: “Charles did a good job on the last lap. He probably risked a bit more in these conditions. The wind changed a lot and it really seemed to punish us in a bigger way.
“I mean not too many complaints. It seems we both thought we did some good laps at the end — and we were just slow, so there’s nothing to complain about.”
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