{"id":40271,"date":"2025-08-02T15:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40271\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T15:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:30:12","slug":"leclerc-storms-to-shock-last-gasp-pole-over-mclaren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/40271\/","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc storms to shock, last-gasp pole over Mclaren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc<\/a> took a sensational and surprise pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, as McLaren’s dominant pace so far across the weekend evaporated at the climax of Formula 1 qualifying.<\/p>\n

The McLarens led both Q1 and Q2 by some margin, plus went 1-2 in every practice outing, and Lando Norris<\/a> set a 1m14.8s in the intermediate stage – but neither of them got anywhere close to that pace in their final runs in Q3.<\/p>\n

Leclerc, meanwhile, reeled off a 1m15.372s on his final attempt to take provisional pole, but both McLaren<\/a> drivers logged slower times in the opening sector; Norris improved slightly to ensure he got closer to Oscar Piastri<\/a>, but the Australian could not improve, citing the change in wind direction.<\/p>\n

Hence, Piastri joins Leclerc – who was evidently surprised by the result over the radio – on the front row, while Norris has George Russell<\/a> alongside him on the second row as the cooling conditions ensured Mercedes<\/a> was in the mix.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin impressed with fifth and sixth; Fernando Alonso<\/a> was briefly ahead of Norris before the Briton did his final lap, and was just 0.109s off Leclerc’s pole pace. Lance Stroll<\/a> will line up behind him, and ahead of the equally impressive rookie Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a>, who made Q3 for the third time in four races.<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen<\/a> could only find a time good enough for eighth on the grid, marginally ahead of Racing Bulls pair Liam Lawson<\/a> and Isack Hadjar<\/a>, who respectively completed the top 10.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren<\/p>\n

Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton<\/a> was the biggest scalp in Q2; the Briton ended the first runs of the session in 11th, but had seemingly got himself into the top 10 with his second effort.<\/p>\n

But his 1m15.702s was beaten by a clutch of drivers behind him, and was pushed further down the order when Verstappen and Bortoleto improved late on in the session.<\/p>\n

Their laps also pushed Andrea Kimi Antonelli<\/a> and Oliver Bearman<\/a> out of the reckoning for Q3, as the Mercedes driver complained of no rear end. He qualified 11th for Sunday’s race, with Bearman 12th and Hamilton 13th.<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz<\/a> and Franco Colapinto<\/a> swapped places late on, but never posed a real threat to break out of Q2.<\/p>\n

Lawson dumped Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> out of Q1 at the last minute, even though the Japanese driver was less than 0.2s off team-mate Verstappen as Red Bull toiled in the opening stage.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda was joined by Pierre Gasly<\/a> in the dropzone, who was outqualified by Colapinto for the second time this season. Esteban Ocon<\/a> had been troubled by a loose screw embedded in the surface of his right-front tyre and only qualified 18th for Haas.<\/p>\n

Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> and Alex Albon<\/a> will provisionally occupy the final row on the grid; the latter looked to have a distinctly loose Williams<\/a> underneath him, and was beaten handily by team-mate Sainz in the session.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

F1 Hungarian GP results – qualifying<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc took a sensational and surprise pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, as McLaren’s dominant pace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,13275,817,826,813,816,31147,31948,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-40271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-charles-leclerc","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-ferrari","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-hungarian-gp","16":"tag-hungaroring","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}