"Let me out as soon as possible." Leclerc's intuition and tire pressure: this is how the pole masterpiece was born.

Charles Leclerc 's statement, "I don't understand anything about F1 today, we had difficulties in every qualifying session and even getting into Q3, but then I scored the best pole position of my career," immediately after taking pole position for the Hungarian GP , could be used to effectively explain how unexpected and hopeless the qualifying result was. In reality, it is instead correct to reiterate, as Andrea Stella, team principal of McLaren, himself did, that nothing in F1 happens by chance and everything can be explained.

The changing environmental conditions undoubtedly contributed to the reshuffling of the cards on the final Q3 attempt, specifically related to two factors: wind direction and track temperature. In the first instance, the wind shifted 180 degrees, and in specific points of the track, the McLaren MCL39 was the car that suffered the most. This had likely already happened on the first attempt, when both Norris and Piastri had achieved a performance that would have allowed them to monopolize the front row. However, on the final attempt, perhaps excessive caution prevailed, having noticed that grip and confidence in corner entry were significantly lower than in Q2.

Nonetheless, the track temperature dropped by more than ten degrees, radically altering the adhesive and mechanical grip parameters of the tires. At the same time, it's fair to argue that Leclerc didn't just push hard on his final attempt from a particular starting position, given that at that point he had virtually nothing to lose by running sixth. The preparation for the lap itself was no less important in terms of the tire temperature window. Choosing to exit the pits as early as possible allowed him to carefully prepare the tires, targeting the precise window of use based on grip conditions, wind direction, and track temperature. The Ferrari garage found the perfect pressures to get the tires working, and Charles warmed them up gradually and flawlessly, thanks in part to his own request to the engineers, "let me out as soon as possible." It's no coincidence, as Andrea Stella also reiterates, that of the top ten qualifying cars, only Leclerc managed to improve his time compared to his first attempt. This allows Charles to enjoy the advantage—significant on this track—of starting ahead of everyone, although, at the same time, it's reasonable to expect a comeback from the hyper-competitive MCL39s of Piastri and Norris, who had shown in both Q1 and Q2 that the gap over the Monegasque's Ferrari was around four tenths, exactly the same gap that emerged in all free practice sessions. In the race, based on the data available to Pirelli, the optimal strategy should be based on a two-stopper with the medium, hard, and hard compounds.