Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took a surprise pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix – as team-mate Lewis Hamilton could manage only 12th.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri and title rival Lando Norris had been expected to fight for pole but the McLaren men were left to settle for second and third respectively.
Leclerc saw off Piastri by just 0.026 seconds with Norris only 0.015 sec behind the Australian. George Russell finished fourth for Mercedes.
McLaren had dominated all weekend at the Hungaroring with Norris fastest in both sessions on Friday, and Piastri – who leads his team-mate by 16 points in the world championship – quickest in the concluding running prior to qualifying.
But Leclerc pulled a mighty lap out of the bag to secure both his and Ferrari’s first pole of the season.
The Monegasque said: “Today, I don’t understand anything in Formula One. Honestly, the whole qualifying was extremely difficult. When I say extremely difficult, it’s not exaggerating.
“It was difficult for us to get to Q2, it was difficult for us to get to Q3. In Q3, the conditions changed a little bit. Everything became a lot trickier, and I knew I just had to do a clean lap to target third.
“At the end of the day, it’s pole position. I definitely did not expect that. Honestly, I have no words. It’s probably one of the best pole positions I’ve ever had. It’s the most unexpected, for sure.”
In the other scarlet car, Hamilton has a record eight wins and nine pole positions in Hungary. However, a week after he qualified only 16th at Spa-Francorchamps, he suffered another setback when he was knocked out of Q2.
Hamilton has now been outqualified by Leclerc at 10 of the 14 rounds so far.
“Every time, every time,” said the British driver after he was informed of his early exit.
Hamilton emerged from his cockpit and walked towards the Ferrari motorhome holding his gloves in front of his visor to obstruct the full glare of the waiting TV cameras.
Hamilton’s lowly grid slot looks set to extend his run without a podium finish to 14 races. Until this season he had never gone more than 10 races into a campaign without finishing in the top three.
Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes, the teenager Kimi Antonelli, has only scored once in his last seven appearances and he too failed to make it out of Q2, qualifying 15th.
Aston Martin have been woefully out of sorts this year and are eighth in the constructors’ standings. Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll failed to make it out of Q1 at the previous round.
However, Alonso – who turned 44 earlier this week – and Stroll progressed to the final phase on Saturday, and will start fifth and sixth respectively. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen qualified eighth for Red Bull.
Alex Albon has enjoyed a strong season – he finished sixth last weekend – but he will line up from the back of the pack here after qualifying 20th and last.
Yuki Tsunoda was also eliminated in Q1 for the fifth time this season, leaving him 16th on the grid.
