Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc clinches pole position for Hungarian Grand Prix
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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and McLaren's Lando Norris during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
REUTERS
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BUDAPEST – Charles Leclerc fought through an “extremely difficult” qualifying on Aug 2 to put Ferrari on pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with McLaren’s Formula One leader Oscar Piastri alongside on the front row.
Piastri’s teammate and closest title rival Lando Norris qualified third, with Mercedes’ George Russell in fourth.
The pole was Ferrari’s first in a grand prix in 14 rounds this season, and it came after Leclerc pipped Piastri by a mere 0.026sec.
“Honestly, the whole qualifying has been extremely difficult. When I say extremely difficult, it’s not exaggerating. It was difficult for us to get to Q2, it was difficult for us to get to Q3,” said Leclerc.
“Q3, the conditions changed a little bit. Everything became a lot trickier, and I knew I just had to do a clean lap to target third. At the end of the day, it’s pole position. I definitely did not expect that.
“Honestly, I have no words. It’s probably one of the best pole positions I’ve ever had. It’s the most unexpected, for sure.”
Does he think he can win the race then?
“The start and Turn 1 will be key,” he added.
“I have no idea how it will go, but one thing for sure is that I’ll do absolutely everything in order to keep that first place. If we manage to do that, that should make our life easier for the rest of the race.”
McLaren had taken eight previous poles this season and qualified one-two in Hungary last time around.
They have also won 10 of 13 races so far, but overtaking is not easy at the circuit outside Budapest and Leclerc has a real chance of Ferrari’s first win of 2025 if he can stave off the McLarens.
Former British driver and pundit Martin Brundle said that there would be some “head-scratching at McLaren” regarding what went wrong in qualifying.
The wind changed towards the end of the session, which could have played a part.
“I think the wind changed a lot. It always sounds so pathetic blaming things on the wind. But it did a 180 from Q2 to Q3 and meant a lot of the corners felt completely different,” said Piastri.
“It was difficult to judge in those conditions and maybe not the best execution. I was surprised we couldn’t go quicker than that. Second is still a decent spot to start, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.
“Charles has been quick all weekend... Things just changed a little bit. He did a very good job and well done to him. I wasn’t expecting to be second to a Ferrari this weekend.”
Norris added: “From how our form is, then of course (it’s disappointing), but I think Charles did a good job on the last lap. He probably risked a little bit more in these conditions. The wind changed a lot, and it really seemed to punish us in a bigger way it seems.
“Not too many complaints. We thought we both did some good laps at the end, and we were just slow. I think it’s going to be an exciting race. I would expect us to have a bit more pace than Charles, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Behind the top four, the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were fifth and sixth.
Gabriel Bortoleto of Sauber qualified seventh, ahead of a surprise eighth by four-time world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, and the Racing Bulls duo of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in ninth and 10th.
Heading into the race, Piastri leads the drivers’ standings on 266 points, ahead of Norris (250) and Verstappen (185). REUTERS, AFP
