{"id":14899,"date":"2025-08-02T16:42:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T16:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/?p=14899"},"modified":"2025-08-02T16:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T16:42:13","slug":"hungarian-gp-charles-leclerc-beats-both-mclarens-by-a-quarter-of-a-tenth-to-take-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f1vault.co.uk\/index\/hungarian-gp-charles-leclerc-beats-both-mclarens-by-a-quarter-of-a-tenth-to-take-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"HUNGARIAN GP \u2013 Charles Leclerc beats both McLarens by a quarter of a tenth to take pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc has beaten both McLarens to take a surprise pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite going into the weekend claiming the Hungaroring wasn\u2019t his strongest track. The Monacan set a 15.372, putting himself a quarter of a tenth faster than Oscar Piastri. While Ferrari has had a stronger weekend, they still appeared to lack that little bit to take pole.<\/p>\n

As he crossed the line, he appeared bemused and in disbelief, as many expected this to be a McLaren front row lockout as they had topped all three practices, but it appears that a change in wind direction aided Leclerc who secured his first pole of the season. Piastri put himself a hundredth and a half ahead of teammate Lando Norris, the favourites for pole both beaten by the Ferrari.<\/p>\n

McLaren had led all weekend, and many expected that to continue in qualifying, but that all changed on the final run in Q3, where they both couldn\u2019t find enough to beat what would be Leclerc\u2019s fastest time after they didn\u2019t manage to improve in sector one with Piastri putting it down to conditions changing. During Q2, the skies appeared to get darker, thus resulting in a drop of track temperatures.<\/p>\n

Leclerc, who will start from pole at the Hungaroring: “The whole qualifying has been extremely difficult and when I say that, I\u2019m 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. At the end of the day, it\u2019s pole position and I definitely did not expect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri, who will start second on the grid tomorrow: “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 Q1 to Q3, so just meant a lot of the corners felt completely different. My first lap in Q3 felt pretty terrible because I wasn’t used to it. And then I thought the second lap was better – but it was even slower.<\/p>\n

Norris starts in third, he said: “I think Charles [Leclerc] 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 it seems, I mean not too many complaints. It seems we both thought we did some good laps at the end and we were just slow, nothing to complain of.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Russell used the conditions to put himself fourth fastest as the Mercedes driver appeared to also benefit as he went half a tenth faster than the two Aston Martins. Aston have had a really strong weekend and backed up their pace from practice with Fernando Alonso fifth ahead of his teammate Lance Stroll by over a hundredth and a half. The team equalled their best qualifying of the season.<\/p>\n

At Spa last weekend, Aston Martin had qualified on the back row because of their deficit when it comes to drag. However, the tight, twisty nature of the Hungaroring played much more to its strengths, and the team have also been boosted by upgrades to the car in recent races. Both drivers were just over a tenth off pole, by far their best performance of the season.<\/p>\n

Sauber\u2019s Gabriel Bortoleto another one to impress as the team continues their strong middle part of the season, the Brazilian outqualifying Max Verstappen by three thousandths. Verstappen has looked to struggle all weekend with his Red Bull, complaining yesterday about the lack of grip, and his struggles continued in qualifying, where he was half a second off Leclerc\u2019s pole position.<\/p>\n

Verstappen was just under a tenth ahead of sister team Racing Bull\u2019s, with his former teammate Liam Lawson also just under a tenth faster than his teammate Isack Hadjar. Red Bull looking as they will be unable to retain the drivers\u2019 championship and regain the constructors, with the four-time champion having his worst qualifying of the season.<\/p>\n

Ollie Bearman was eleventh the Haas missing out on Q3 by seven thousandths as he went eight thousandths faster than Lewis Hamilton. Both Englishmen missed out right at the end of Q2 as track conditions improved and times became faster; Hamilton had gone seventh on his last run but then others improved right in the final moments of the middle part of qualifying.<\/p>\n

He told Sky Sports, \u201cI’m useless, absolutely useless. The team has no problem, you’ve seen the car on pole so they probably need to change driver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz was thirteenth, the Williams driver going just over a quarter of a tenth faster than Franco Colapinto, as Kimi Antonelli\u2019s difficult mid-season continued as he was slowest in the middle part of qualifying just over two tenths behind the Argentine.<\/p>\n

Yuki Tsunoda was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, the Red Bull driver was a quarter of a tenth behind Colapinto at the end of the session. Tsunoda out-qualifying his former teammate Pierre Gasly by just under seven hundredths and Gasly\u2019s fellow Frenchman Esteban Ocon six hundredths further behind.<\/p>\n

Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon completed the field, but their expense really summed up qualifying, not just in Budapest but through out the first half of 2025 of rapidly improving times, the closeness of qualifying and unpredictability. In Q1, just over a second covered Piastri who had set the fastest time and Albon in twentieth, while Q3 t came down to just six tenths.<\/p>\n

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