BUDAPEST, Hungary — Charles Leclerc has built a reputation for producing some very special qualifying laps throughout his Formula One career.
He’s started more than three times as many races from pole (27) as he has won (eight), often usurping quicker cars with some one-lap brilliance at the very end of qualifying. But on Saturday at the Hungaroring, even Leclerc was baffled by what he’d just done.
Two days ago, he was talking down his chances of success here this weekend, noting how this was a track he’d never really gelled with. His best result in Hungary is fourth. Now, he’s just scored Ferrari’s first 2025 pole, defeating the dominant McLarens at a narrow track where qualifying is crucial, given the lack of overtaking opportunities in the race.
“What?!” Leclerc replied to his race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, after being told the result.
He laughed to himself afterwards: “Mamma mia. My God!”
The bemusement initially hidden by Leclerc’s helmet remained etched on his face after he hopped out of his car and celebrated with his team.
“Today, I don’t understand anything in Formula One,” he said in parc ferme, explaining how it’d been a struggle to advance through qualifying, let alone be in the mix up at the front.
“It’s probably the most surprising pole position that I’ve ever done,” Leclerc added in the news conference. “I really thought we would struggle to get into the top five. So I’m very happy.”
The result for Leclerc was Ferrari’s brightest moment since Lewis Hamilton’s shock sprint race victory at the Chinese Grand Prix back in March, a result that has since become increasingly anomalous in the context of the team’s poor 2025 season and the Englishman’s own struggles. The seven-time world champion’s shock Q2 exit in Hungary confined him to 12th on Sunday’s grid. Afterwards, Hamilton called himself “useless”.
Leclerc was only sixth in Q2, hardly looking like a threat to the McLarens, which had finished first and second in each session except Q1 this weekend. But things swiftly turned around.
This was courtesy of the changing wind direction, which picked up in strength as a few dark clouds gathered near the circuit, with some drivers even reporting a sprinkling of rain as Q2 got underway. “It always sounds so pathetic blaming things on the wind, but the wind basically did a 180 from Q2 to Q3,” said McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who qualified second, a mere 0.026 seconds off Leclerc’s time.
But the wind sensitivity of modern-day F1 cars, where every millimeter is designed so carefully with maximum aerodynamic efficiency and performance in mind, means a change in the breeze can have a huge impact. As the wind increased and altered course, the braking and corner references each driver had built up through practice and the first two stages of qualifying all went out of the window.
“You just have to reset whatever you’ve learned in Q1 and Q2 because everything feels different,” Leclerc explained. “The way you need to take the corners is different.”
It was Leclerc’s first pole since September 2024 (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
It led to a series of differences for Leclerc between his fastest lap (1:15.455s) in Q2 and his pole lap, which was just 0.083 seconds faster. Leclerc braked later than he had before into Turns 1, 4 and (importantly) 5, which was the point where he started to gain time on his best previous effort. He carried far more speed through the right-hander.
Despite struggling through Turn 2, going a bit wide as he understeered as a result of the wind, he was then able to swing time back on Piastri’s best time in Q3 on the run of medium-speed corners from Turn 8 to Turn 11, making up around two-tenths on the McLaren. Leclerc’s slightly lower downforce specification also led to gains in a straight line that swung things in his favor. This may prove critical in a dry race tomorrow, given how hard it is to pass here.
Piastri said the change in conditions felt “bizarre and somewhat frustrating” behind the wheel. “It was just weird,” he said. “My first lap (in Q3) felt terrible, because I was just pushing too much.” Having been 0.46 seconds slower here than his best time in Q2 – where McLaren appeared supreme – Piastri then went even slower on his second Q3 lap.
Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, told Sky Sports F1 he thought Piastri and Norris “might have been a bit cautious” with their final laps due to the fluctuating conditions. He noted how the changing wind made each corner feel different. “We went four-tenths slower than in Q2, while Leclerc went faster,” Stella said. “He deserved the pole position.”
This was where Leclerc’s innate ability to hustle a car through a qualifying lap and extract every last ounce of pace made all the difference. But that ease of finding time in qualifying is something he’s struggled with until recently this year, chiefly due to the struggles with Ferrari’s 2025 car, which has left him requiring an “extreme” setup at times to get the most performance from it. Just because the car goes quicker doesn’t mean that it feels nice or natural to drive.
Ferrari’s big step forward came courtesy of the updated rear suspension it introduced last week in Belgium. This is targeted at solving the ride-height issue that contributed to the Italian team’s double disqualification from the main China race. It has also eased some of the setup issues for Leclerc, giving him the chance to unlock more of that natural speed.
He thought another small yet significant factor was how he’d done his first run in Q3 on a used set of tires instead of going for fresh softs. This left him P6 in the provisional order, but it meant that while Piastri and Norris knew the track was feeling different and were struggling to adapt, Leclerc believed it was purely due to his worn tires. “So I just went all-in for the second run in Q3, and it went all well, even though it felt bad,” he said.
How long can Leclerc hold off the McLarens on Sunday? (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
Snaring pole position away from the McLarens in qualifying is one thing. Defeating the two papaya-colored cars, especially without Hamilton near the front to help him, is going to be a huge ask for Leclerc and his team.
The McLarens have typically been stronger over the race distances this season, managing their tires much better toward the end of each stint. Piastri, unsurprisingly, said he still felt “pretty confident” of fighting for victory on Sunday, despite joking that the only other spot you can overtake here, besides Turn 1, is the pit lane.
That plays into Leclerc’s hands. There is not much grip off the racing line, making it hard to get moves to stick without a big pace delta. Protecting his lead into the first corner will be critical.
“The start and Turn 1 will be key,” Leclerc said. “I have no idea how it will go, but one thing, for sure, is that I’ll do absolutely everything to keep that first place. If we manage to do that, that should make our life easier for the rest of the race.”
In what has been a strange season for Ferrari, its form swinging around the hype over Hamilton’s arrival to inevitable scrutiny, Leclerc’s magic lap for pole here will stand out as a moment to savor.
If he can convert it into an unlikely win tomorrow, it may end up being regarded as a turning point in Ferrari’s year.
(Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)