Leclerc says he "maximized result" with Ferrari in Hungarian GP qualifying

Not feeling as comfortable as Lewis Hamilton aboard the SF-26, Charles Leclerc admitted he may have underestimated the effect of the wind during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix this Saturday (July 25). Although he cited being compromised by the yellow flag caused by Isack Hadjar in Q2, the Monégasque made it clear that he was never close to the pace shown by his Ferrari teammate.

Cruising through the first two segments without trouble, driver #16 put himself in contention for pole position in Budapest. In Q3, posting a 1m17s445 as his best time, he had to settle for third place—0.238s adrift of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who secured top spot on the grid for the first time in the 2026 Formula 1 season.

“There was a significant shift in wind direction, and I don’t think I did a great job anticipating it with the set-up. I felt we were a bit off compared to the morning practice, and then qualifying turned out to be quite tricky,” Leclerc stated in his post-qualifying interview.

“We were unlucky in Q2 because of the yellow flag, and after that, we were playing catch-up, but the pace was never quite on Lewis’s level. Today was all about maximizing the available result, and I think I managed to do that,” he concluded.

GRANDE PRÊMIO is tracking all the action live from the Hungarian GP, the 11th round of the 2026 season.

F1 Hungarian GP: when to watch in US ET, London (UK), New Delhi (India), Shanghai (China) and Sydney (Australia)