McLaren surprised by Hungarian GP pole, says Stella

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expressed surprise at Lando Norris's Hungarian Grand Prix pole position, stating that while upgrades to the car were effective, they did not anticipate them being sufficient for pole.

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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.

Norris qualified fastest at the Hungaroring, edging out Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton by a mere 0.012 seconds. This marked the first pole position of the season for a driver outside of Mercedes. Hamilton was later demoted to fifth for impeding, promoting Charles Leclerc to the front row. Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli also received a penalty for a yellow flag infringement, moving him down the grid.

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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.

Stella indicated that Ferrari remains the favorite for Sunday's race. He noted that Ferrari drivers did not improve their times on their second attempts in qualifying, suggesting they might have reserved some performance. "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," Stella told Sky Sports television.

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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.

Norris shared his "pleasant surprise" at being back on pole, attributing his success to the car's strong performance and the team's work on the new upgrades. "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. Despite his qualifying success, Norris acknowledged the persistent threat from Ferrari, who have won two of the last four races and are known for their strong starts. "They’ve been fast all season, so I’m still expecting a tough race," Norris commented.

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They’ve been fast all season, so I’m still expecting a tough race.