Leclerc stuns McLarens to take shock Hungary F1 pole

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc claimed a stunning shock pole position for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, after McLaren had dominated the entire weekend before the final qualifying segment.

It marked Leclerc and Ferrari's first grand prix pole of the campaign, with Leclerc - who described it as the most unexpected pole of his career - up to 27 poles now in his F1 career.

In what was already a curious qualifying - a dry session, despite a smattering of raindrops at the start of Q2 - three teams put two cars in Q3, but while McLaren was unsurprisingly one, the others were none of its usual rivals Ferrari, McLaren or Red Bull - but Aston Martin and Racing Bulls instead.

Yet as the wind seemingly picked up and temperatures dropped, the McLarens were notably slower at the start of Q3 than before, lapping in the low-1m15s range rather than high-1m14s, though this was still enough to head up the pack.

Piastri was a tenth ahead of Norris after their opening attempts, with Mercedes' George Russell a further tenth and a bit back - closer than he'd looked all weekend despite a minor slide going through the final corner.

As the McLarens began their last laps, Fernando Alonso slotted in between them with his final Q3 push - and with Norris halfway through his lap Leclerc jumped up to provisional pole.

Norris found a bit more laptime with a strong final sector but didn't do enough to dislodge Leclerc or Piastri, who himself couldn't improve.

At the last moment, Russell slotted into fourth, just 0.053s back from pole position.

The Aston Martins settled for a third-row lockout, Alonso narrowly ahead of Lance Stroll - who was just 0.126s off pole. Gabriel Bortoleto was a spectacular seventh, three tenths off in the Sauber.

The apparent swing in track conditions wasn't enough to repair things for Red Bull, Max Verstappen labouring through Q1 and Q2 before placing the car eighth on the grid, ahead of the sister Racing Bulls cars of Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar.

Hadjar, last in Q3, ended up 0.543s off pole.

A scrappy final sector on his last Q2 lap put paid to Kimi Antonelli's chances of making Q3, with the lap only good enough for 11th-fastest - and then deleted anyway for track limits at the final corner.

It meant the lead Haas of Ollie Bearman picked up 11th instead, right ahead of one of the cars of his backer Ferrari.

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Lewis Hamilton was just two and a half tenths back from Leclerc in Q2 - but this was only good enough for 12th, Hamilton muttering "every time, every time" on team radio at the conclusion of the run.

Carlos Sainz (Williams) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) also both moved up a spot as a result of Antonelli's lap deletion, with Colapinto securing his second head-to-head qualifying win over Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly.

Yuki Tsunoda was as close as he'd been to Verstappen all season in qualifying - just a tenth and a half back in Q1 - but was on the wrong end of the top-15 cut-off in that segment by a quarter of a tenth.

Former Alpine team-mates Gasly and Esteban Ocon will share row nine behind him, Ocon having gone out on the final Q1 run with a screw stuck onto the surface of his front right tyre. He lapped a quarter of a second slower than Bearman.

Nico Hulkenberg was half a second back from Sauber team-mate Bortoleto in 19th, reacting with an "oh man" and an expletive when told of Bortoleto's laptime - but Alex Albon in last was further back still from his own team-mate Sainz.