New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nCharles Leclerc took pole here in 2025 despite not having set the quickest time of qualifying in a bizarre Q3 that offered no improvements in lap time.<\/p>\n
This year it\u2019s Lando Norris on pole despite Ferrari probably having had the equipment to do the job.<\/p>\n
Just as it had done for Leclerc last year, clutch driving sealed the deal for Norris.<\/p>\n
For the second season in a row, conditions peaked and then declined at the beginning of Q3. Lewis Hamilton held provisional pole after his first Q3 lap, but then the track seemed to get slower for the final laps, and all but two drivers failed to find more time.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Hamilton, Norris was one of those drivers.<\/p>\n
Norris had been just 0.101 seconds behind Hamilton when he embarked on his final lap of qualifying, and as one of the last drivers over the line, he knew there could be no reply if he could string it together.<\/p>\n
A blistering middle sector is what made it. Strongest through that part of the track all weekend, his advantage peaked above 0.2 seconds as he hit the brakes for turn 12.<\/p>\n
It was just enough of a buffer to survive Hamilton\u2019s unbeatable final sector and emerge with the narrowest pole of the season, with a margin of just 0.012 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was confident. I knew I could do it, honestly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It was his first pole position as the defending world champion and McLaren\u2019s first pole of the season.<\/p>\n
It couldn\u2019t have come at a better time.<\/p>\n
THERE\u2019S LIFE STILL IN McLAREN<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s big upgrade was one of the key stories of the weekend.<\/p>\n
The team hasn\u2019t brought a major update to the car since May, having realised it had picked some wayward design choices that needed to be reworked.<\/p>\n
It left the team sliding down the order in the intervening months, but this weekend\u2019s update \u2014 with more to come at the Dutch Grand Prix after the break \u2014 corrected the course.<\/p>\n
Indeed the result suggests it\u2019s done more than that, even if this is only one particular circuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat potential has turned into a result, which is always a very nice thing to see for the whole team and very good for the motivation and the atmosphere within the team,\u201d Norris said. \u201cIt\u2019s rewarding to see work going in and rewards being taken out, so I\u2019m very pleased for all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even so, team boss Andrea Stella described it as \u201csomewhat surprising\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new upgrades we brought to the track performed exactly as we had anticipated, and this outcome is a testament to the months of relentless effort from everyone back at the factory in developing and delivering these parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we have a lot of progress to still make, today confirms that our development direction seems the right one, and I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only disappointment was Piastri\u2019s relatively lowly fifth-place result almost half a second off the pace, though that was down to him being impeded by Lewis Hamilton at the start of his final Q3 attempt.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d been 0.364 seconds slower than Norris after the first runs, but the Australian had more to gain, having missed FP1 and having got the upgraded car only in FP3, giving him more ground to make up in less time.<\/p>\n
Norris said that he didn\u2019t need to make any major changes to his car after FP1, giving him a much longer run-up to qualifying with the car in inconsistent track conditions.<\/p>\n
Had Piastri\u2019s rate of improvement continued, he likely would have qualified third or fourth, though grid penalties for drivers ahead mean he\u2019ll start third anyway \u2014 arguably a better place to start than second given how dirty this circuit is off the racing line.<\/p>\n
This is by far the most competitive McLaren has looked since its previous upgrade in Miami, where Norris and Piastri finished second and third \u2014 though that was up from fourth and seventh in qualifying.<\/p>\n
This weekend was billed as a test of whether the team could retain its slender, outside shot of defending its championship or at least taking the fight to Mercedes at the front of the field.<\/p>\n
This is just one track, but so far the signs are good. <\/p>\n
Verstappen spins out in Q3 | 00:20<\/p>\n
DID FERRARI COST ITSELF POLE?<\/p>\n
McLaren and Norris deserved pole, but it came not just contrary to expectations but also against the run of play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were quickest throughout qualifying, so it definitely got away from us,\u201d a clearly dejected Lewis Hamilton said after qualifying second.<\/p>\n
He was doubly downcast for knowing he was under investigation for impeding Piastri at the critical moment in Q3, and the infraction that cost him a three-place grid penalty and will see him start fifth.<\/p>\n
Leclerc will start second, which is one up on his qualifying position but puts him on the slippery side of the grid, from where making a typically good Ferrari getaway will be more difficult.<\/p>\n
But considering the team\u2019s form coming into qualifying and through most of the session itself, and considering Hamilton led after the first runs of Q3, it\u2019s hard not to agree Ferrari let this one get away from it.<\/p>\n
Part of it is down to some confusing execution from the team.<\/p>\n
Hamilton, for example, was surprised he was sent out as the first car to set his final qualifying lap.<\/p>\n
Typically, when the track is improving as much as it was before Q3, being last on track is most beneficial \u2014 Norris was the penultimate car to set a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why we went first, and that was a bit of a shock to me,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cI definitely wouldn\u2019t have chosen to go first, but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Had he not been first in the order, he also wouldn\u2019t have been in a position to block Piastri and incur a penalty.<\/p>\n
The Briton also shouldered some of the blame, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a clean out-lap, and when I started my lap, already into turn 1 I had a snap and I was already 0.15 seconds down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just cascaded from there, so the last lap was the worst lap of all, and all the other laps were really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe clearly had the car to be on pole today, and I just didn\u2019t deliver. So that\u2019s tough to swallow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leclerc said simply that he couldn\u2019t find the rhythm on Saturday after having looked so strong on Friday<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting into the car, the feeling wasn\u2019t great, and then it was just a messy session overall,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been off by maybe 0.2 seconds between the two, throughout the whole qualifying, and I didn\u2019t truly find a solution to it, so that was a bit of a shame.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was purely driving. I\u2019ll look into it and try to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a weekend Mercedes underperformed and will start sixth and seventh, Ferrari and Hamilton look like they\u2019re missing a wide-open goal to take a big bite out of their championship deficits.<\/p>\n
But amid the disappointment of the team\u2019s underperformance, there are some bright spots.<\/p>\n
Leclerc noted that Ferrari\u2019s race pace during Friday practice was strongest in the field \u2014 notwithstanding possible gains from other teams \u2014 and the team has two cars inside the top five, which is still a strong position.<\/p>\n
Perhaps more important, however, is that warmer Sunday conditions on this high-degradation circuit have opened up strategic options for the teams.<\/p>\n
A two-strategy is rated as marginally quicker than the one-stop. Traditional Budapest is a tough track for overtaking, but the same is true for Barcelona, where Ferrari committed to the extra stop and had the pace to win even without the virtual safety car that guaranteed it.<\/p>\n
Ferrari still has the pace to put up a fight and walk away with a big points swing and, with better execution, victory.<\/p>\n
MERCEDES IN DAMAGE CONTROL AFTER SEASON-WORST RESULT<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s pole-getting performance may have been \u201csomewhat surprising\u201d, but Mercedes\u2019s flop was a real shock, failing to take pole position for the first time this season.<\/p>\n
Title leader Antonelli qualified fourth, his equal worst qualifying result of the year and teammate George Russell qualified an outright-worst seventh.<\/p>\n
Antonelli then picked up a three-place grid penalty for insufficiently slowing for yellow flags on his final lap in Q3, demoting him to a season-low seventh and moving Russell up to an equal-worst sixth for the year.<\/p>\n
At 0.272 seconds off the pace as the third-quickest team on the grid, whichever way you cut it, it\u2019s Mercedes\u2019s worst Saturday result of the year by far.<\/p>\n
Even worse: Russell stopped on track at the end of Q3 with a cracked engine leaking water. The team has swapped his engine without penalty, but that has future grid drop written all over it in what could be another blow to the Briton\u2019s championship campaign.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, the Hungaroring does not play to Mercedes\u2019s strengths, with very few straights on which it can make the most of its engine advantage, which it retained even over customer team McLaren.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, however, is that Mercedes\u2019s advantage has been slipping for months, with Ferrari having been in a position to pinch two of the last three victories and now McLaren challenging too.<\/p>\n
Antonelli also noted that \u201cwe\u2019ve seen others bring more upgrades\u201d compared to Mercedes, which hasn\u2019t had a major revision since Canada, instead preferring incremental improvements.<\/p>\n
Mercedes deputy technical director Simone Resta said on Thursday the team will switch focus in the second half of the year to bringing a bigger upgrade package in a bid to match its rival teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably, after the shutdown, we will try to focus on having something more sizeable on the car,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are clearly focused on trying to develop the car at every event but also trying to think bigger by bringing another step to the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hungaroring is one particular circuit towards the fringes of the spectrum of tracks on the calendar. Its patchwork tarmac has also made it a particular challenge this weekend that means the results here are unlikely to be generally representative.<\/p>\n
But the trend is also clear. Mercedes has been caught.<\/p>\n
For the first time this year, the team is in damage-limitation mode, and the question is how much pain its rivals can exact heading into the midseason break.<\/p>\n
ASTON MARTIN RESHAPES THE MIDFIELD<\/p>\n
McLaren\u2019s big upgrade has had a material effect at the front of the field, but Aston Martin\u2019s update was even more consequential.<\/p>\n
After months of pain with a dismal first attempt at a 2026 car, Aston Martin brought the first tranche of a multi-part upgrade to Hungary. Having pooled all its development resources into the package, its entire season \u2014 and who knows what else \u2014 hinged on its success or failure.<\/p>\n
You can only imagine the size of the relieved exhalation in the garage and back at the factory when Fernando Alonso did what seemed impossible only a week ago: he made Q2.<\/p>\n
It sounds like a low bar, and it is relative to the team\u2019s lofty preseason expectations.<\/p>\n
But you have to consider how far off the back of the pack it was before this weekend.<\/p>\n
In the previous three races, Aston Martin was on average +3.778 seconds off pole and 0.68 seconds behind newcomer Cadillac over a single lap.<\/p>\n
These times are calculated by normalising every circuit to an 80-second lap time to compare different tracks accurately.<\/p>\n
With one upgrade package, Alonso closed his gap to pole to just 2.695 seconds and moved Aston Martin up to ninth in the ranking, ahead of Williams and Cadillac, in what is by far the team\u2019s most competitive qualifying performance of the year.<\/p>\n
Aston Martin\u2019s five smallest gaps to the front<\/p>\n
1. Hungary: +2.695 seconds<\/p>\n
2. Canada: +2.886 seconds<\/p>\n
3. Miami: +3.007 seconds<\/p>\n
4. China: +3.219 seconds<\/p>\n
5. Japan: +3.486 seconds<\/p>\n
(11. Austria: +4.633 seconds)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s struck fear into the hearts of Cadillac and Williams but should also create some pangs of panic at Haas, which was only 0.077 seconds quicker at the weekend.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s then a long way forward to the battle between Alpine, Racing Bulls and Audi on pure pace.<\/p>\n
There are some reasons for caution over the result.<\/p>\n
Cadillac, as a new team, is struggling in the downforce stakes, and Hungary is a high-downforce circuit. Williams also suffered what was by far its worst qualifying performance of the season thanks to some mechanical problems. Though it\u2019s not taking the same one-upgrade approach as Aston Martin, it is pinning its hopes on a big package in Azerbaijan, the fourth race after the break, meaning it is naturally sliding backwards.<\/p>\n
But there is also reason to think this is just the beginning for Aston Martin.<\/p>\n
Honda\u2019s upgraded engine will arrive at the next race in Zandvoort, and team boss Adrian Newey says two more parts of the aerodynamic upgrade will arrive over the next two races.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat adrenaline when you close the visor and you go into the lap, it was missed in the last few events,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cIt was nice to go back to that feeling, and hopefully more to come in the next few races.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a grid that looks like it could\u2019ve come straight from last season. Just like last year, McLaren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-824284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824284","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=824284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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