The Saturday in F1 Hungarian GP saw Ferrari put in a surprise lap to take pole and beat the McLaren pair, as Lewis Hamilton blames himself for the Q2 fall.
The wind change in Q3 in F1 Hungarian GP qualifying at Hungaroring gave that extra chance to Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, who took it with both hands and secured a surprise pole against the McLaren pair. It even surprised the Monegasque, who couldn’t understand what was happening.
He went for a quick lap in Q3 and it landed him pole. He was aiming for third, but two more. He understands it will be difficult to handle them in the race, but he will use the Hungaroring’s characteristics to his advantage as much he can.
Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were caught out by the wind change and they took it cautious in the final run in Q3, which cost them the chance for pole when Leclerc went all out. But the two are calm about their chances in the race due to the pace advantage they have.
The Monegasque’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, took the Q2 exit on his shoulders. The Brit was short on words but he termed himself as ‘useless’ and wanted Ferrari to drop him. He had Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli also knocked out in Q2 itself.
The Italian did not hook up a good lap to be 11th but track limits dropped to the fag end of Q2. His teammate George Russell recovered after bad Friday to make it in Q3 and at the upper end. The Brit takes it as a salvage job, but not a win as he knows the car is still not where he wants.
The pair of Red Bull were off as well. Max Verstappen dragged the car to Q3 as he noted that the F1 team couldn’t find any solution to their issues. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda was out in Q1 in a close fight, as he noted that there was no grip which has been an issue all-weekend long.
Leclerc: “Today is a day where I don’t understand anything anymore in motorsport! I mean, honestly, qualifying felt horrible. From the first lap to maybe the penultimate lap, everything felt out of place. It really felt like we had done a step backwards from FP3. And in terms of competitiveness, Q1 I was on the limit, barely made it to Q2. Q2 I was on the limit, I mean, I did quite a big mistake in Turn 4, but still, it wasn’t easy to get to Q3. And then Q3, the conditions I think changed for everybody. I basically just did a clean lap, which I think was a really good lap because those conditions were very difficult to get everything right. And I did, but I was really happy about the lap, and it’s probably the biggest, the most surprising pole position I’ve ever done. I think after FP3 it wouldn’t have been so surprising. But after Q1 and Q2, I really thought we would struggle to get into the top five even. So, I’m very happy. I didn’t do anything special for this weekend that I normally don’t do. I knew it was a weekend where normally on paper I struggle more, but that doesn’t change my approach. I always try and prepare the weekend in the best way I can.
“But for some reason, I also think that the upgrade in Spa definitely helped me to extract a little bit more. And as I’ve been saying, often before Spa, I had to set up the car in a very, very extreme way early on in the season to try and extract something out of this car in qualifying. However, it was making everything very inconsistent, and I was struggling to be on top of the car all the time. However, in Spa with the upgrade, it helped me to be a bit more in a reasonable window car-wise, and it feels like it’s fitting a little bit more the way I drive in qualifying when I start pushing. And that’s really important because since the beginning of the season I’ve been struggling particularly in quali, which is normally one of my strengths. But since Spa, it’s coming back towards me a little bit. I mean, I don’t know. I think there’s some rain around tomorrow, so if that is the case, then it’s obviously easier to overtake. But it’s always better to be starting first, especially on this track. So, I’m very happy with my starting position and now full focus on trying to keep it tomorrow.”
Piastri: “Depends where you’re sat. If you’re sat where Charles is, fantastic. If you’re sat where I’m sat, bizarre and somewhat frustrating. But yeah, I mean, I think the conditions completely changed, and it was just weird. My first lap felt terrible because I was pushing too much and kind of with the wind direction from the first two sessions in mind. So, then I felt like I did a better job on the second lap of managing expectations, and it was even worse. So yeah, a bizarre session, but I need to look back and see what differences it made. Things definitely felt more tricky for myself as well in Q3, but I think for everybody it would have been difficult. So that’s not our excuse. I mean, it’s kind of what I just explained. My first lap in Q3, I wasn’t that surprised that it was half a second off because of some, I mean, mistakes is probably harsh on myself, but just not predicting what the wind was going to do in certain corners maybe as well as I could have.
“But the second lap, I thought I did a better job of adjusting my expectations, and like I said, I didn’t go any faster. So yeah, a bit strange, one for us to look through, but it wasn’t very fun losing that half a second. For the race, I am pretty confident. It was good last year, so hopefully it can be good again this year. But yeah, like Charles said, there’s some rain around. We’ll see if that impacts the race. But I think our pace has been good, but Charles has been quick all weekend, in certain sessions. It is a very difficult track to overtake on, and it’s not going to be the easiest place to try and regain the lead.”
Norris: “I’ll just copy and paste, yeah. Exactly the same. Q2 felt very good, felt confident to improve. So, into Q3, aiming for a similar lap time, similar limits, and just felt pretty dreadful. Same things. I wasn’t surprised that I was a 15.4 in the first run. But in the second lap, it’s just hard to know how much more to push or not push. And I was like, oh, it’s a much better lap, and I was 15.4 again. So just similar thing. The wind has such big effects on the car when you’re driving. It’s quite easy for it to be half a second swing. So yeah, frustrating because we definitely seem to have a good gap, but in Q3 it seemed to drift away from us as a team more than it did for others.
“The race will depend on what the weather is. Like the others said, could be some rain, which normally makes things more interesting. But I think we always have, at least in the race, a bit more of an advantage. But our main competitor over the last four, five races has been Charles and it’s been the Ferrari. So, if there was anyone else that’s going to be on pole today, it was going to be Charles. And if there’s anyone that’s going to make our life tough tomorrow, it’s going to be the same guy. So yeah, we’ll see. It’s a long race, things can happen, and hopefully the rain can be on our side maybe.”
Hamilton: “It just was not very good. Nothing to do with the car. It clearly is. I drove terribly. It is what it is. I’m useless, absolutely useless. I don’t think anything can help me right now. It is amazing for the team [for Charles to get pole], clearly the car is capable of being on pole, so a big congrats to Charles and the team. [As I said] the team, they have no problem – you’ve seen the car is on pole. So, they probably need to change driver. Not this weekend [I didn’t think I could have done what Charles did]. All weekend [has been a struggle].”
Verstappen: “I mean, looking at the whole weekend, I think we are happy to be in Q3 because I’ve been more outside of the top 10 than in. It’s been difficult. The whole weekend no grip, front and rear, and it was the same in qualifying. So for me, it was not really a shock. I just drove to what I already feel the whole weekend. No, clearly not [we haven’t identified the issue], otherwise, of course, we would have changed it already. But somehow, this weekend, nothing seems to work. I think we still qualified very close to pole, like within a few hundredths, so I think we were a lot more competitive back then. But yeah, this weekend already, from lap one, it just fell off, and we threw the car around a lot, and nothing really gave a direction. And that of course is the biggest problem, because normally, when you use or you change a lot on the set-up, it will always give you positives or negatives, and now just nothing works.
“It’s like just going around in circles, and nothing gave you any kind of idea of what to do. There’s not been a single lap or a single corner that I felt good. So the whole weekend so far, it’s just been sliding. I never thought that it would be the strongest weekend here, but I think this no one expected. There may be a car a few cars in front of me that I can maybe battle with a little bit. But of course, also Lewis is still a bit further down the road, which I think he shouldn’t be there, right? So he will come through a bit. We will see what we can do. I mean, we have had a few Singapore disasters. So yeah, I mean, it’s just not been a good one for sure.”
Russell: “Q3 was a messy session. We took the smallest step backwards from Q2. I was only a tenth slower than Q2. Fernando was two-tenths slower, McLaren six-tenths slower. So I’m not going to get carried away with my Q3 performance because, for the rest of the weekend, it hasn’t been straightforward. Of course, Kimi was also out in Q2, and it’s not been plain sailing. The wind had shifted a lot. The wind was gustier. That corner [T14] was very different compared to Q2, but I should have reacted. I knew the wind was different, and I had much less downforce in this corner, but that’s the reality. I should have reacted, and that’s what cost me. But you speak with every driver, and they’ll give you a reason why they missed pole, because no one did their personal best in Q3. These are definitely better conditions for us. Whenever it cools down, it’s good. I was quite concerned ahead of qualifying because [the track temperature] was 55 degrees. And I saw that cloud coming over, I was like ‘happy days’. And then it dropped down to like mid-30s, which is sort of our ideal condition.
“So, something around mid-30s for the track temperature would be good. McLaren, every single lap they’ve done this weekend, bar Q3, they’ve been the dominant force. So I’d be shocked if we’re fighting with them tomorrow. As I said, I think the fact is Q3 was just a very unique session. And as I said, every lap this whole weekend, McLaren have been on average sort of three or four tenths ahead of Leclerc and seven tenths ahead of the rest of them. So they clearly underperformed in Q3 and probably P4 for us was a fair result. Obviously, Max is unusually out of position. And Aston Martin all weekend have been unusually strong as well. They’ve been doing a really great job. So the fact is we don’t really know. I hope the fight can be for a podium, but realistically that’s against Charles and not against McLaren.”
The fall of Hamilton, Antonelli and Tsunoda helped both the Aston Martin cars and Visa Cash App RB cars into Top 10. The former duo has been on pace all-weekend long and Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll proved it in qualifying as well, to register their best of the season.
Alonso noted how the car has simply suited the circuit, especially on one lap pace. It will be now to retain the places in the long run. Their result did irk Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar a bit, as they hoped to be in that position. The Kiwi, in fact, managed to beat his French teammate.
Lawson was pleased to show the pace, but Hadjar felt seventh was possible with the pace they had. That position was taken up by Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian not only continued his good run, but also the Swiss F1 outfit’s, who lost Nico Hulkenberg in Q1 after he couldn’t ascertain the pace loss.
The Haas F1 pair missed out on Q3. Oliver Bearman was close to making it in but he lost confidence in the slightly tricky conditions in Q2. As for Esteban Ocon, he felt his lap was good but it was not good enough in terms of position, especially with the close pack.
Alpine saw Franco Colapinto make it in Q2, but not Pierre Gasly. Both suffered from traction issues all-weekend long, which hurt the Frenchman more than the Argentine. The Williams F1 pair had not much pace at all, with Carlos Sainz salvaging a Q2 spot, while Alexander Albon was last.
Alonso: “I would say that it’s track characteristics, to be honest. We didn’t change the car massively since Spa seven days ago. No new parts for anybody to this race. Just the layout, the characteristics of the circuit is just suiting our car, apparently – and it would be nice to understand this, why the car is operating in this sweet spot here because if we understand that, we can use it in the next few races. I think it [Sunday’s race] is going to be difficult, to be honest. I would like if we can finish in the same positions as we start. The wind was the main thing, the temperatures were a little bit stable but the wind completely switched in Q3 in a different direction and made the track slower, so we could not match the lap times of Q1 and Q2, but relative to others we were okay, also we went in the middle of the session thinking that the wind will pick up in the end and yeah, we were quite close to pole position, I think it worked fine for us.
“Fifth and sixth will be lovely in terms of points for the team before summer break, and that will be the first target. If we can recover any place [in championship], it will be good. We need to understand as well that there are some threats from behind, some fast cars. Max is starting behind, Lewis as well, so it’s not going to be easy. I’m glad, obviously – when the car is a little bit faster, you will not enjoy watching TV! Probably I would enjoy watching Spa if I was about to miss that race! But you never know. I got hurt a little bit in the Spa race with the seat, and have this torn muscle fibre or something like that. So that needs a little bit of relax for two weeks, which I didn’t have [after Spa]. I have four weeks after Sunday and I will enjoy summer a little bit, relaxing and recovering.”
Bortoleto: “Obviously very very happy, going into Q3 is always special. There is no secret, it is working here, we had the worst possible start to the weekend and Friday, I had zero comfort with the car and I struggled a lot with the balance and I was off-space, I would say. I have been able to maximise and put the car in the right window and deliver Q3 again, P7 is something special and that I am proud of, weekends like this motivate me a lot and they make me better driver, because you need to keep your head down and keep working. We stayed in the track last night, through midnight, the mechanics and engineers were working, we broke curfew for fixing things in the car and studying lot of things that we should do for today and it paid off.
“Again, when it is raining you never know in Formula 1 but I believe we will be fighting for points. It is always difficult to keep Max behind, if he wants to overtake, it is going to be a big factor for sure. I don’t know how is his car in the race pace. We were quite competitive but everything can change, obviously I am excited to fight with him because he is a good friend of mine and I have been learning a lot with him recently, so yeah, maybe we have some nice overtakes.”
Hadjar: “Yeah, it definitely slipped away. It was a very poor lap, I made a big mistake and it cost me a lot. The wind picked up a lot and it became very awkward to drive, especially for me as I went for only one attempt, so Q3 was very difficult. I think seventh was possible. Making into Q3 is good but once you are in Q3, you need to do something with that and I didn’t. The race pace is decent but not better than the cars ahead of me, so we need a big start in the race and get good strategy, otherwise we will be stuck.”
Bearman: “There were tough conditions out there, it became overcast and there were drops of rain on the first run in Q2, and I didn’t quite put the lap together. Whenever you see raindrops on the visor, it gets a bit scary but also the track felt very different between runs, and I think I struggled to adapt really. I’m certainly optimistic though as the car felt good, I had a good feeling, and I have high hopes for tomorrow.”
Gasly: “It is always disappointing to be out in Q1. We knew going into Qualifying it would be a challenge but, at recent races, we have still managed to put it together and extract the maximum from the car. Today I just could not get the car to do what I wanted. We suffered with a lot of understeer on the lap. At times it felt okay this weekend but it is clear we have been on the backfoot right from the start of the weekend. Maybe there will be some opportunity tomorrow. The weather could be mixed and it will be eyes on the sky once again. We will aim to recover some positions but we know it will not be easy starting so far back.”
Albon: “We knew it was going to be a tough track for us here and it’s been one of those weekends where we’ve been chasing it and I haven’t felt that comfortable in the car. We went back to the FP1 car for Qualifying as that’s where I felt it was most predictable, but maybe the track has evolved since then. We were too slow on the outlap, then there was a bit of rear tyre degradation and other things, so it was a bit scrappy. It’s going to be tricky from P20 but maybe we will get some rain. Let’s see.”
Here’s how F1 Hungarian GP qualifying panned out
