Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc recalls a “messy” 2026 F1 Hungarian GP Qualifying session, where he finished P3, which became P2 on the grid after Lewis Hamilton received a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Piastri.
After looking like the car to beat during the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP Friday practice, the field looked much closer in FP3, a trend that Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had already predicted when talking to the media after FP2.
In Qualifying for the Hungarian GP, the trend continued with McLaren, Mercedes, and Ferrari drivers looking to be in the mix for pole. Ultimately, McLaren driver Lando Norris pipped pole by 0.012 s from Hamilton, with Leclerc slotting into third over two tenths down.
In the official press conference following Qualifying for the Hungarian GP, Leclerc stated that his hopes for pole “slipped away” in the first segment of the session.
“No, I’d say it slipped away from Q1, to be honest.”
Leclerc on a “messy” Qualifying session
Describing Qualifying for the Hungarian GP as a “messy session”, the Monegasque laments a lack of “feeling” inside the SF26, which, along with having to use two new soft tyre sets to make the cut for Q3, added to the feel of Qualifying having been “tricky” from the start.
“Getting into the car, the feeling wasn’t great, and then it was just a messy session overall. We had to put, I think, two new sets on in Q2, and then it was just kind of tricky from the beginning.”
Analyzing where he lost time, Leclerc explains that he inexplicably lost around 2 tenths in Turns 1 and 12. A decisive loss of time given the gap to pole-sitter Norris and teammate Lewis Hamilton at the end, for which the Ferrari driver will consult the Qualifying date to find answers.
“Turn 1 and Turn 12 are the question marks I have going out of qualifying, and I’ll have to analyze the data. I’ve been off by maybe two-tenths between the two throughout the whole qualifying, and I didn’t truly find a solution to it. So that was a bit of a shame, but that was purely driving. I’ll look into it and try to understand.”
Leclerc expects a close fight in the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s Hungarian GP, Leclerc feels that Ferrari has shown “very strong” pace during Friday practice. However, given that the competition was much closer during FP3 and Qualifying, Leclerc expects the Hungarian GP to be a similarly close fight.
“The long-run pace was actually very, very strong, so that’s good. But again, it’s difficult to take for granted what we’ve saw yesterday because everybody seems to have made a big step forward from yesterday to today.
“So, I expect it to be much tighter tomorrow in the race.”
