Hamilton Calls Himself ‘Useless’ as Leclerc Shocks Hungary With Ferrari Pole

日期：2025-08-03 00:42:45 栏目：Car 浏览：1 评论：0

Lewis Hamilton suggested that Ferrari “probably needs to change driver” after he was only 12^th in a qualifying session in Hungary Saturday surprisingly fronted by teammate Charles Leclerc.

After a trio of practice sessions controlled by the McLaren drivers, Leclerc stunned in the final shootout session to snatch an unlikely pole position, his and Ferrari’s first of the season.

But Hamilton’s qualifying woes continued as he was knocked out in the second part of qualifying.

It comes a week after he was eliminated from the first segment of qualifying in Belgium.

Hamilton took Sprint pole in China but elsewhere has lacked one-lap pace, is 4-10 down on a head-to-head with Leclerc, and has yet to qualify inside the top three for a grand prix.

“Yeah I'm useless, absolutely useless,” he said in his immediate post-qualifying interview with Sky Sports.

“It's not their [Ferrari's] problem, the other car is on pole so they probably need to change driver.”

Hamilton was similarly downbeat and brief during his session with the written media, explaining that there was “nothing” wrong with the SF-25 and it was him that “just wasn't very good.”

While Hamilton was left to rue a desultory result, a stunned Leclerc reveled in taking pole position, the 27^thof his career.

“Today is a day where I don't understand anything anymore about the sport,” Leclerc joked. “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 FP3. And in terms of competitiveness, Q1 I was on the limit, barely made it to Q2. Q2 I was on the limit. I mean, I did quite a big mistake in Turn 4, but still, it wasn't easy to get to Q3.

hungarian grand prix 2025 qualifying day hungaroring — Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc celebrates pole after qualifying at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Hungary. Bradley Collyer - PA Images - Getty Images

“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, I think, to get everything right. And I did, but I was really happy about the lap.

“And it's probably the biggest, the most surprising pole position I've ever done.”

Championship leader Oscar Piastri will start from second spot, with Lando Norris third, and George Russell fourth.

The quartet were split by just 0.053s in one of the closest qualifying sessions of the season at the Hungaroring.

Aston Martin pulled a surprise a week after its car was the slowest on the grid in Belgium.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll took fifth and sixth respectively, locking out the third row of the grid, while Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto captured his best qualifying result in seventh.

Red Bull has struggled for performance all weekend, leaving Max Verstappen down in eighth.

“The whole weekend I’ve had no grip, front and rear, and it was the same in qualifying,” Verstappen said. “So for me, it’s not really a shock, I just drove to what I already feel the whole weekend.”