Charles Leclerc will start on pole position for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, heading the F1 starting grid in a result that surprised even the Ferrari driver.

But while Leclerc was celebrating, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton was lambasting himself as “useless” after being eliminated before the final shootout and qualifying 12th.

“Every time, every time,” he lamented over the radio and later explained more to Sky Sports. “I’m useless, absolutely useless,” he said. “The team has no problem, you’ve seen the car is on pole… probably need to change the driver.”

Scroll down or click to see how the grid will look when it lines up for the 14th grand prix of the season, which starts at 2pm BST (3pm local time).

Leclerc said that he had struggled with the car early in the session, but that it all came together at the very end when he was the only driver to improve his time over Q2. He will start in front of the two McLarens, with Oscar Piastri ahead of Lando Norris.

They are followed by George Russell and the two Aston Martin drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, in cars that look transformed in Hungary — the track suiting the Aston, according to Stroll.

The Red Bulls failed to make an impact: Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated in Q1 and Max Verstappen will start eighth, one place behind the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto.

Leclerc was clearly stunned in his post-session interview. “Qualifying has been extremely difficult,” he said. “It was difficult for us to get to Q2 and Q3. I knew that I just needed to get a clean lap to target third. In the end it was pole position. I definitely did not expect that.

“It’s probably one of the best pole positions I’ve ever had. It’s the most unexpected for sure.”

Both McLaren drivers set sub-1min 15sec lap times in Q2 but failed to do so in the final session. Piastri said that he was caught out by an increase in windspeed. Everyone else saw the same trend, setting slower times in the final session than they had in Q2, with the exception of Leclerc who improved on his Q2 time.

Once again, there was an early exit for Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli who were knocked out in Q1 at the last race in Belgium. They only made it to Q2 in Hungary.

Their loss was Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto‘s gain: the Racing Bull and Sauber drivers making it through to Q3 for the second race in a row.