BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Charles Leclerc was left questioning everything he thought he knew about Formula 1 after securing a surprise pole position ahead of both McLaren drivers at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver beat championship leader Oscar Piastri to the fastest time in Q3 by 0.026 seconds, delivering his first pole position of the season and the 27th of his career.
The result came as a surprise after Piastri topped the timesheets in Q1 and Q2, but may have been caused by a change in conditions as the skies clouded over and wind picked up ahead of Q3.
"Today is a day where I don't understand anything anymore about the sport," Leclerc said. "I mean, honestly, qualifying felt horrible, from the first lap to maybe the penultimate lap.
"Everything felt out of place. It really felt like we had done a step backwards from final practice. And in terms of competitiveness, Q1, I was on the limit, I barely made it to Q2.
"Q2, I was on the limit. I mean, I did quite a big mistake in turn four, but still, it wasn't easy to get to Q3.
"And then Q3, the conditions, I think, changed for everybody. I basically just did a clean lap, which was, I think, it was a really good lap because those conditions were very difficult to get everything right. And I did, but I was really happy about the lap.
"It's probably the most surprising pole position I've ever done."
The result is Ferrari's best in a grand prix qualifying session this year and comes after the team introduced a rear suspension upgrade at last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.
"It's a big boost," Leclerc said of the result. "I mean the team has been pushing like crazy to bring upgrades. Last weekend the team have brought an upgrade as well and it helped us to go in the right direction.
"We didn't know how much and as I said in Spa, I think we need to judge over a few races and not only one. But yes, to be able to be on pole position today is amazing and it means that we are doing something right.
"Again, I think for many things I did not expect to be on pole, also because I was saying on Thursday this is probably the worst track for me statistically over the season, I've always struggled. But this weekend for some reason I found some pace, so yeah, it's good."
Leclerc's Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton, who has a record eight wins and nine pole positions at the Hungaroring, finished 12th after being knocked out in Q2 and said he was "useless."
Team principal Fred Vasseur, meanwhile, was more cautious over the shock result, saying it was still a "difficult" session and Leclerc was almost out in Q2 as well.
"For sure it was by far the best session of the season, but it was a very difficult one and you have to keep this in mind," he told SiriusXM. "We were not that far away from having the two cars out in Q2, and we were able to come back and to put everything together and do some steps for Q3."
On Hamilton's P12 grid start he said: "It's better to start from pole in Budapest than from P12, for sure, but I think the analysis is a good one that you don't have to compare P1 and P12, you have to compare one tenth in Q2.
"This is more the issue, because Charles was not that far away from being out in Q2, and we have to keep this in mind in our analysis of the day."