F1 has its closest top four on a grid for 64 years – at least: Qualifying data

A sudden change in conditions in the final minutes produced a surprise pole-winner and an unexpectedly close qualifying session.

Change from practice to qualifying

Ferrari pulled off a shock when Charles Leclerc took pole position in qualifying. He consistently posted the third fastest time throughout practice and did not look like a contender for the top spot.

Perhaps most surprising of all, Ferrari was the only team which failed to lap quicker in qualifying than they did in practice. Leclerc’s pole-winning 1’15.372 was 0.057 seconds slower than he managed in practice.

Gaps between team mates

There was little to choose between the McLaren drivers in qualifying at this race last year, when Lando Norris beat Oscar Piastri to pole position by 0.022 seconds. It was even closer this time, Piastri prevailed by a mere 0.015s.

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Team mate battles sequences

Fernando Alonso extended his run of out-qualifying his team mate Lance Stroll to 26 races. However Stroll came remarkably close to ending his team mate’s run – the pair were separated by just 0.017 seconds in Q3.

Out-qualified team mate

Rank	Driver	Streak
1	Fernando Alonso	26
2	Max Verstappen	20
3	George Russell	8
4	Gabriel Bortoleto	4
5	Charles Leclerc	2
6	Franco Colapinto	1
=	Carlos Sainz Jnr	1
=	Oliver Bearman	1
=	Oscar Piastri	1
=	Liam Lawson	1

Out-qualified by team mate

Rank	Driver	Streak
1	Lance Stroll	26
2	Yuki Tsunoda	12
3	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	8
4	Nico Hulkenberg	4
5	Lewis Hamilton	2
6	Alexander Albon	1
=	Isack Hadjar	1
=	Esteban Ocon	1
=	Pierre Gasly	1
=	Lando Norris	1

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Q1 and Q3

In a remarkable example of how close F1 is today, none of the five drivers who were eliminated in Q1 at Spa last week also dropped out at the first stage today.

Red Bull had an unwelcome reversal in fortunes after enjoying one of their stronger performances at Spa. There Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda both qualified inside the top seven, but both ended up outside it today.

Four other regular visitors to Q3 ended up in contention for pole position. The eventual gap between them was incredibly narrow and was potentially the closest ever in F1 history.

Pole-winner Leclerc, the McLaren drivers behind him and fourth-placed George Russell were covered by just 0.053 seconds. This is officially the closest top four on the grid since the 1961 British Grand Prix, where the top four of Phil Hill (Ferrari), Richie Ginther (Ferrari), Jo Bonnier (Porsche) and Wolfgang von Trips (Ferrari) were all given lap times of 1’58.8 around the Aintree track.

While the times were recorded to a single decimal place, it seems they were only measured to an accuracy of one-fifth of a second. Timing is now done to a thousandth of a second and is therefore 200 times more accurate. It’s therefore possible today’s top four is closer than the one of 64 years ago.

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• Ferrari fourth-fastest but on pole position in Hungary: Lap time data
• F1 has its closest top four on a grid for 64 years – at least: Qualifying data
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