McLaren were so comfortably ahead of the competition in practice at the Hungaroring that qualifying looked like being a foregone conclusion.
Instead the Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session threw up several surprises.
Teams’ performance
Ferrari have only set the fourth-fastest lap time of the weekend so far. McLaren, Aston Martin and Mercedes have all gone quicker.
Despite this, Charles Leclerc captured pole position for the grand prix. This wasn’t the result of a brilliant, one-off lap where he hooked everything together, but rather the sudden change in conditions as Q3 began.
A substantial storm passed to the north of the circuit during the session. A small amount of rain fell on the track, which was not enough to force drivers to pit for intermediate tyres.
But rising winds and falling track temperatures had a significant effect. The track surface temperature fell from well over 50C to below 40C during the course of qualifying – a significant shift.
Leclerc was the only driver who consistently improved his lap time from session to session despite the changing conditions. Five drivers set quicker laps than his pole-winning 1’15.372 but, of course, none of them did in Q3.
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Not for the first time this year Red Bull did not look competitive on Friday, but in another surprise this was not the prelude to a more competitive showing on Saturday. They actually lapped the Hungaroring slower than they did 12 months ago.
Curiously, Red Bull have not taken a pole position at this track since the current generation of aerodynamic regulations was introduced in 2022.
Sector times
In the most dramatic weekend-to-weekend change seen in a long while, Aston Martin went from being slowest at Spa to second-fastest this weekend. Their drivers will share the third row of the grid, led by Fernando Alonso.
Lance Stroll was actually quicker than Alonso in all three sectors, but never managed to combined his best times together in a single lap. The fragility of the soft tyre likely played a role in this.
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| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 27.357 (1) | 26.374 (1) | 21.012 (1) | 1’14.743 (+0.198) |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | 27.443 (2) | 26.396 (2) | 21.051 (2) | 1’14.890 |
| 3 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 27.493 (5) | 26.416 (3) | 21.220 (4) | 1’15.129 |
| 4 | 63 | George Russell | 27.496 (6) | 26.455 (5) | 21.211 (3) | 1’15.162 (+0.039) |
| 5 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 27.485 (3) | 26.453 (4) | 21.312 (8) | 1’15.250 (+0.122) |
| 6 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 27.523 (7) | 26.529 (7) | 21.229 (5) | 1’15.281 |
| 7 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | 27.586 (12) | 26.560 (8) | 21.229 (5) | 1’15.375 (+0.094) |
| 8 | 12 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 27.631 (17) | 26.476 (6) | 21.316 (10) | 1’15.423 (+0.359) |
| 9 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 27.590 (13) | 26.595 (10) | 21.315 (9) | 1’15.500 (+0.086) |
| 10 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 27.643 (18) | 26.588 (9) | 21.296 (7) | 1’15.527 (+0.020) |
| 11 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | 27.554 (8) | 26.687 (11) | 21.321 (12) | 1’15.562 (+0.132) |
| 12 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 27.485 (3) | 26.704 (14) | 21.373 (14) | 1’15.562 (+0.090) |
| 13 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 27.583 (11) | 26.698 (13) | 21.338 (13) | 1’15.619 (+0.083) |
| 14 | 30 | Liam Lawson | 27.623 (15) | 26.687 (11) | 21.320 (11) | 1’15.630 |
| 15 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | 27.567 (9) | 26.740 (16) | 21.512 (17) | 1’15.819 (+0.056) |
| 16 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 27.623 (15) | 26.734 (15) | 21.542 (18) | 1’15.899 |
| 17 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 27.646 (19) | 26.853 (19) | 21.459 (15) | 1’15.958 (+0.123) |
| 18 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 27.572 (10) | 26.935 (20) | 21.459 (15) | 1’15.966 |
| 19 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 27.603 (14) | 26.769 (17) | 21.651 (19) | 1’16.023 |
| 20 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 27.725 (20) | 26.841 (18) | 21.657 (20) | 1’16.223 |
Field performance
Despite lapping quicker than last year, McLaren were unable to get close to the track record for the Hungaroring, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2020.
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