Karun Chandhok stunned by what Lando Norris did to lose Hungarian Grand Prix pole to Charles Leclerc

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Charles Leclerc’s pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix stunned everyone watching, including Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok.

After topping every practice session as well as Q1 and Q3, the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were unable to replicate their superiority in Q3 as Leclerc stormed to Ferrari‘s first pole position of the 2025 season.

McLaren’s dominance over the field in Grands Prix throughout the current season has also been present on Saturdays, with Max Verstappen and George Russell previously being the only two drivers to topple the papaya in qualifying.

Another rout was expected this weekend, where McLaren wanted to redeem themselves after the debacle last year in which Piastri secured his maiden win in F1.

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Karun Chandhok questions how McLaren lost so much pace between Q2 and Q3

McLaren was the only team in Q2 to break into the 1:14s, but was unable to replicate these times in the session that matters the most, Q3.

Chandhok pointed this out on X (formerly Twitter), posting, “Incredible qualifying from Charles to take pole but it feels like McLaren lost that one. Oscar 4 tenths slower, Lando 5 tenths slower in Q3 compared to Q2”.

In fact, the pole sitter was the only driver to improve on his time set in the second qualifying session, and even that was marginal. The Monegasque driver bettered his Q2 time by just 0.083 of a second, but it was still enough to guarantee his slot at the front of the pack for tomorrow.

Despite having an adverse effect on his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, the rear suspension upgrade Ferrari added to their SF-25 in Belgium seems to have benefited Leclerc on a track that can be quite unforgiving on the rear tyres.

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Charles Leclerc snatched pole position from McLaren on his final Q3 lap

Charles Leclerc took pole position in one of the closest qualifying sessions in Formula 1 history, with the top ten drivers separated by just 0.543 of a second and the top four within half a tenth of each other.

The feat comes after the announcement of Fred Vasseur’s contract extension by Ferrari on Thursday morning. Leclerc noted one of Vasseur’s ‘very important’ abilities after the news broke, and repaid the team’s faith in his team principal with an electric lap in Q3.

Leclerc seemed to be the most surprised driver on track with the result, as his race engineer told him the good news over the radio, the Monegasque laughed and replied, “What? Mamma Mia!”.

All eyes will now be on Leclerc to see if he will be able to fend off the McLarens behind him into turn one and better them in racing conditions.