Sawt Falasteen - Ferrari's Leclerc on pole for Hungarian GP

The Monegasque driver will share the front row on Sunday with McLaren's Oscar Piastri. McLaren's Lando Norris will start from the second row alongside fellow Briton George Russell who was fourth for Mercedes.

"I honestly have no words, it's probably one of the best pole positions I've ever had because it's the most unexpected for sure," said Leclerc.

The 27-year-old went late in the final minutes of a closely-contested session to clock a best lap in one minute and 15.372 seconds in changing conditions, leaving his rivals frustrated as they failed to improve on their first run times.

He took pole by 0.026 seconds ahead of series leader Piastri and by 0.041sec ahead of the Australian's team-mate and title rival Norris, with Russell 0.053sec adrift in a breathtakingly close finish.

It was Leclerc's first pole of the year, his first in Budapest and the 27th of his career. It was Ferrari's first pole in Hungary since Sebastian Vettel in 2017.

"The whole qualifying has been extremely difficult and when I say that I'm not exaggerating," said Leclerc of the windy conditions at the Hungaroring.

"It was super difficult for us to get to Q2 and Q3, in Q3 the conditions changed a little bit and everything became a lot trickier and I knew I had to just do a clean lap to target third.

"At the end of the day it's pole position and I definitely did not expect that."

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST