Charles Leclerc stuns McLaren duo for Hungarian GP pole, Hamilton exits early

New York Times

8 hours ago

It looked like McLaren was set to secure yet another 2025 front-row lockout, but Ferrari's Charles Leclerc came storming back to snag pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Leclerc claimed Ferrari's first pole of the season in a session where Lewis Hamilton — who topped sprint qualifying back in China in March — was eliminated in Q2.
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The McLaren drivers took second and third, with Oscar Piastri leading Lando Norris. After topping the earlier qualifying sessions, they were undone by changing conditions at the overcast Budapest venue, where Aston Martin starred and not even Max Verstappen could overcome Red Bull's car deficiencies on this technical, low-speed course.
Q3 started on a peculiar note, with the initial lap times coming in slower than the drivers' times in Q2. The wind had changed direction and increased in strength, according to Norris's race engineer. This can alter car handling significantly around the complex aerodynamics of these machines.
But McLaren still held provisional pole after the first Q3 runs, with Piastri 0.096 seconds clear of Norris. Then came Mercedes driver George Russell, who faced pressure from Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in what was one of the strongest performances of the season for their Aston Martin team. Its car has come alive this weekend, with both Alonso and Stroll thriving.
Alonso even temporarily split the McLaren pair with his second Q3 lap — set with two minutes of the session remaining, as Aston ran an unorthodox strategy of setting their times ahead of the rest of the pack. Alonso had missed FP1 on Friday as he managed a muscular injury in his back.
Then came Leclerc, storming out of nowhere. He catapulted from seventh after the first Q3 runs to set the pole time at 1:15.372 seconds, 0.026 seconds faster than Piastri's previous best. The McLaren pair then set their final times, with Norris able to jump back above Alonso, and he was later followed in this regard by Russell. But Piastri could not improve, and so Leclerc's pole was secure.
'The conditions changed, it made everything very tricky, and in the end, we are in pole position,' Leclerc said. 'Honestly, I have no words. It's probably one of the best pole positions that I've ever had, because it's the most unexpected, for sure.'
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The final Q3 runner was Verstappen, but he could not do any better than eighth, as Red Bull struggled compared to the form Formula One fans have grown used to in recent dominant years. The Budapest track has none of the fast corners where the car performs best. Verstappen ended up behind star rookie Gabriel Bortoleto of Sauber, but ahead of Racing Bulls duo of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar at the tail end of the top 10.
The top six were separated by just a tenth of a second, showing how fine the margins were — a feature of the session overall.
After a slightly delayed start to Q2 because of track cleaning, the Mercedes drivers were the first cars out. But a little bit of rain had arrived at Hungaroring, with Norris' race engineer reporting 'very light drops.' This did not continue into Q3.
The McLaren duo held a significant lead over the rest of the grid after the first laps were done and dusted. The gap between Norris, who was first, and Alonso in third was half a second, with Piastri in the middle just 0.051 seconds behind his teammate. Red Bull's struggles were clear, though, with Verstappen sitting eighth with under seven minutes to go in the session and just 0.114 seconds separating him from Hamilton in the drop zone.
Hamilton was joined here provisionally by Carlos Sainz, Bortoleto, Kimi Antonelli and Franco Colapinto (whose first lap time was deleted for track limits). And this group only slightly changed in the final Q2 runs.
Bortoleto sneaked out to claim the 10th fastest Q2 time and progress to where he would end up beating Verstappen, while Ollie Bearman dropped back and was eliminated in 12th, missing the cutoff by 0.007 seconds. Antonelli's final lap time was deleted, which dropped him from P11 to qualifying P15.
Behind them at the flag came Hamilton, as the eight-time Hungarian GP winner could not match Leclerc's pace and join the lead Ferrari driver in Q3. As he returned to the pits, Hamilton said over his team radio, 'every time, every time' — a reference to his struggles over flying laps all season, apart from that glittering high in Shanghai. Sainz and Colapinto trailed Hamilton, with the Williams driver getting ahead of the Alpine right at Q2's end. Both were boosted by Antonelli's fall.
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McLaren, Aston Martin and Racing Bulls were the only teams that had both drivers advance to Q3, and the top five at this stage were Norris, Piastri, Stroll, Russell and Alonso.
Qualifying had a slow start back in Q1, with the Williams duo eventually being the first cars out on track as the dark clouds hovered. But onboard footage showed Alex Albon sliding on the dirty track. As more cars made their runs, the circuit rubbered in — increasing tire grip as ever more rubber went down and times tumbled as a result. This only did not continue happening in Q3 due to the wind direction changing.
With eight minutes of the first session to go, Sainz, Yuki Tsunoda, Bearman, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon made up the drop zone, with the gap between Albon (in P15 at the time) and Sainz just 0.021 seconds. The track evolution played a key role in how the field shook up by the end of this session, with the margins extremely thin. P1 through P18 were covered by a second with five minutes to go and again at Q1's end.
And as expected, there was shuffling in the drop zone as the final laps took place. Tsunoda ended only 0.163 seconds behind Verstappen, who set the 11th fastest lap in the opening session, but the Japanese driver was still eliminated. This shows how fine the margins are overall, but also how Red Bull's struggles left it exposed. Meanwhile, Alonso set the second fastest lap in Q1 behind Piastri, as Stroll sat ninth in the other Aston Martin.
Bortoleto, continuing his strong recent form, was evident from the off in qualifying, as he even set the sixth fastest Q1 lap while his Sauber teammate Nico Hülkenberg was knocked out, along with former Alpine teammates Gasly and Ocon. Albon, meanwhile, was the other faller, as he completed his final run well ahead of the checkered flag, and the Williams driver missed on the best of the Q1 track conditions.
1. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
2. Oscar Piastri, McLaren
3. Lando Norris, McLaren
4. George Russell, Mercedes
5. Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
6. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
7. Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
8. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
9. Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
10. Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls
11. Ollie Bearman, Haas
12. Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
13. Carlos Sainz, Williams
14. Franco Colapinto, Alpine
15. Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
16. Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull
17. Pierre Gasly, Alpine
18. Esteban Ocon, Haas
19. Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber
20. Alex Albon, Williams
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