Karun Chandhok stunned by how Charles Leclerc defeated McLaren to snatch pole position for Hungarian GP. Charles Leclerc stunned everyone by snatching pole position from McLaren at the 2025 Hungarian GP.

Charles Leclerc’s pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix surprised many fans and experts alike, including Sky Sports F1 analyst Karun Chandhok.

Throughout the weekend, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had dominated every practice session and led the first two qualifying rounds, but they were unable to maintain that pace in Q3. Leclerc surged to claim Ferrari’s first pole position of the 2025 Formula 1 season, ending McLaren’s streak of Saturday supremacy. Until now, only Max Verstappen and George Russell had managed to disrupt McLaren’s qualifying dominance this year.

Coming into this weekend, McLaren was expected to deliver another strong qualifying performance, especially eager to make amends after last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix where Oscar Piastri secured his maiden Formula 1 victory in dramatic fashion.

Karun Chandhok expressed surprise over McLaren’s significant loss of pace between Q2 and Q3. While McLaren was the only team to break into the 1:14 lap time range in Q2, they failed to match those times during the crucial final session. On social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Chandhok highlighted this drop-off, noting that both McLaren drivers lost considerable time in Q3 compared to their Q2 performances, with Piastri down by four tenths and Norris by five tenths of a second.

Remarkably, Charles Leclerc was the only driver to improve his Q2 time in Q3, albeit by a narrow margin of just 0.083 seconds. Even this slight improvement proved decisive, securing him the coveted top spot on the grid for the race the next day.

The rear suspension upgrade that Ferrari introduced to the SF-25 during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend appeared to play a crucial role in Leclerc’s performance, especially on a circuit like the Hungaroring, which is notoriously tough on rear tires. This upgrade seemed to offer Leclerc a notable advantage over his competitors, including his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who struggled more with the new setup.

Charles Leclerc’s pole position came in one of the closest qualifying sessions in Formula 1 history. The top ten drivers were separated by only 0.543 seconds, and the gap between the top four was less than half a tenth of a second.

This achievement followed the announcement of Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur’s contract extension earlier that Thursday. Leclerc praised Vasseur’s “very important” qualities, expressing gratitude for the team’s trust with a stellar final Q3 lap that rewarded their faith.

Charles Leclerc himself appeared genuinely astonished by his pole position. Upon hearing the news from his race engineer over the radio, he responded with laughter and disbelief, exclaiming, “What? Mamma Mia!”

All attention now turns to Leclerc as he prepares to defend his pole position at the race start. The big question remains whether he can hold off the McLaren duo through the opening corners and maintain his advantage during the race conditions.