by Charles Leclerc grabbed the first Pole of the season for Ferrari for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Monegasque driver will share the first row with McLaren’s Oscar Piatri on Sunday. McLaren’s Lando Norris will start in the second row in the second row together with British George Russell, who was fourth for Mercedes.
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“To be honest, I have no words, it is probably one of the best Pole positions I have ever had because it is certainly the unexpected,” said Leclerc.
The 27-year-old went late in the last minutes of a closely contested session to play a best round and 15.372 seconds under changing conditions in one minute, so that his rivals were frustrated because they could not improve their first terms.
He took Pole by 0.026 seconds before the series leader Piatri and 0.041 seconds before the teammate and title of Australian Norris, with Russell 0.053sec in a breathtaking exit in a breathtaking exit.
It was Leclerc’s first pole of the year, his first in Budapest and 27th of his career. It was Ferrari’s first pole in Hungary since Sebastian Vettel in 2017.
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“All qualifying was extremely difficult and when I say that I don’t exaggerate,” said Leclerc about the windy conditions in Hungaroring.
“It was super difficult for us to get to Q2 and Q3, in the second quarter the conditions changed a little and everything became much more difficult and I knew that I only had to make a clean round to achieve third place.
“At the end of the day it is the pole position and I definitely didn’t expect that.”
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