Towards the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying round, if you were like me, you probably would have said the following: “Where did it come from?” Charles Leclerc finally beat the Ferrari drought in Budapest, securing the team’s first Grand Prix pole positionFollowing Lewis Hamilton’s fastest time in qualifying in China.
It certainly took a long time, but even if Leclair was the closest challenger to McLaren this weekend, he had no particular feelings about the cards heading into the session. The end of Q2 really created doubt. Two McLaren drivers soaked the Leclerc for the sixth half-second with the only car that could fall below the 1M15S barrier.
Hamilton was eliminated in that session too, so it was a surprise that Leclair had defeated everyone a few minutes later.
“Today, I don’t understand anything in Formula 1!” Leclerc said as soon as I got out of the car. “To be honest, the whole qualifying was very difficult. When I say it’s very difficult, it’s not exaggerating. It was very difficult. It was difficult to get to the second quarter.
“In Q3, the conditions changed a bit. Everything was really hard and I knew I had to do a clean rap to be my third target. At the end of the day, it was Paul’s position. I definitely didn’t expect that.
“The conditions have changed, and everything is very tricky and ultimately I am in Paul’s position. Honestly, I have no words.
Leclair wasn’t just his distrust, as championship leader Oscar Piastri couldn’t summarise how the session quickly escaped McLaren.
“It depends on where you are sitting,” Piastri admitted. “If you’re at Charles’s place, it’s great. If you’re in the place where I was sitting and it’s weird and somewhat frustrating, I think the conditions have completely changed, and it was just odd.”
“My first lap felt bad because I was pushing the wind direction with the first two sessions in mind. I did a better job on the second lap, managed my expectations and made it even worse.
“It’s a strange session, but I need to look back and see what a difference it made.
Piastri was the only driver to not improve his second run in the third quarter, only 0.026 seconds from Leclair, but Randnoris found a little more time, but could not climb a third, 0.041s away from the pole. It was very close, but it was also a major shift from the second quarter. “Just copy and paste (Piastri’s comment),” Norris added. “Exactly the same. Q2 felt very good and I felt confident in improving. I was aiming for similar lap times, similar limits, and it felt pretty scary.
“The same thing. I wasn’t surprised I had a 15.4s on the first run, but on lap 2 it’s hard to know if I’d push or not. I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a much better rap.’
“It has a huge impact on the car while driving. A half-second swing is very easy. It definitely looks like there’s a good gap to be frustrated, but in the third quarter it seemed like we were farther away from us as a team than the rest.”
Everyone was hoping that McLaren would be on the mountain as usual, but Andrea Stella says the rapid changes in the situation have captured everyone. Joe Portlock/Getty Images
One big question remains – why? The answer appears to be two. One – The gap with Leclerc was not as big as it appeared in Q2. The Ferrari driver may have lost time when he made a mistake on the best lap in Turn 4 and may have seen him appear to be heading towards, or at least close to, a pole position shootout. The other is related to the dynamics two McLaren drivers face when fighting each other for the World Championship.
“I think it’s an interesting (confusing question) in terms of understanding how things go for a Formula 1 car,” explained Andrea Stella, principal of the McLaren team. “It definitely has changed dramatically in the conditions.
“Immediate data shows sudden changes in wind direction, wind strength, temperature and humidity.
“We averaged about half a second slower. In fact, we simulated changes in the conditions of the simulation, but gave us about a quarter second, although a little less.
“The track was definitely slow. For Rand and Oscar, I think the grip wasn’t expected after seeing the conditions changed in the first run, and all the corners were a bit unpredictable.
“I think this is a slightly different approach for Charles. ‘I don’t think there’s much to lose here,’ he just did. This paid off. This is the credibility and merit of a very good execution by Ferrari and Charles. ”
Stella’s theory would also explain how close the other cars are. The top six (George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Lance’s walk) are covered at 0.126 at the end of the qualifying round. Perhaps it’s a one-off forward, a unique by-product of such unexpected trajectories and changes in weather conditions, with McLaren being cleared again in race trim on Sunday, but Norris is wary that the previous one is the most competitive opposition in four of the past six races.
“I think we always have a little more advantages, at least in races,” Norris admitted. “The last four major competitors, five races, were Charles, and that was Ferrari. If there’s anyone on Paul today, it’s going to be Charles.
