McLaren surprised by Hungarian GP pole, says Stella
Formula One F1 – Canadian Grand Prix – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – May 22, 2026 McLaren team principal Andrea Stella during a press conference ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger
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BUDAPEST, July 25 : Lando Norris’s Hungarian Grand Prix pole in an upgraded car came as a nice surprise to champions McLaren but Ferrari are still favourites to win on Sunday, team boss Andrea Stella said on Saturday.
Reigning Formula One world champion Norris beat Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton by 0.012 of a second in the session at the Hungaroring to become the first non-Mercedes driver this season to take a grand prix pole.
Hamilton was then demoted to fifth for impeding, promoting his teammate Charles Leclerc to the front row, while Mercedes’ world championship leader Kimi Antonelli also took a three-place drop for a yellow flag breach.
That left Norris’s Australian teammate Oscar Piastri starting third at a track where overtaking could be tricky and the start is likely to be another key factor.
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“This is a nice surprise. We had some upgrades here and saw they were working well. We added a few tenths to the car but we never thought this would be enough to put the car on pole position,” Stella told Sky Sports television.
“Honestly, tomorrow, the Ferraris remain the favourites. Even in qualifying, none of them improved on the second attempt, so I think they left a little bit of performance on the table.
“We take the encouraging indications that come from the result but we remain realistic. There’s still quite a lot of work to do ahead of us to be consistently in the position we are in today.”
Norris said he was “pleasantly surprised” to be back on pole.
“The car was performing very well, and the team has done a brilliant job with the new upgrades, we certainly wouldn’t be here without them,” he said. “While my final laps in Q3 (the final phase) weren’t perfect, we had the pace when it mattered.”
That said, the threat from Ferrari remained real with the Italian team winning two of the last four races and known for quick starts.
“They’ve been fast all season, so I’m still expecting a tough race,” Norris said. “Obviously, they did Q1 on the medium (tyre), so it’ll be interesting to know what tyre they’re going to start on tomorrow. They may potentially be in a slightly better position with some things.”
Source: Reuters
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