Charles Leclerc claimed top Ferrari honours on Saturday in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, after securing sixth on the grid.
The Monegasque’s qualifying session was by no means anything special, as he wasn’t actually the top Ferrari-powered driver.
That honour went to Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, who’ll be starting alongside Leclerc at the Hungaroring in fifth.
Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz failed to even make it to Q3, with the Spaniard having been dumped out by Leclerc in Q2.
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Leclerc knocked Sainz out with his final lap in Q2, leaving Sainz to start Sunday’s race in 11th.
Sainz actually left Leclerc annoyed in Q1 on Saturday, to the extent where the 25-year-old complained to the team.
Whilst Leclerc was on a hot lap, Sainz appeared to veer across the circuit almost onto the racing line, an incident Leclerc labelled as “borderline”.
“Let’s stay calm but come on. I don’t know if you’ve seen that but it’s borderline,” Leclerc said over the Ferrari team radio.
Leclerc quickly put the incident behind him on his way to securing a third row start for Sunday.
Following the session, Leclerc admitted that he “put everything together” but that it wasn’t enough to beat McLaren, who locked-out the second row.
He noted that the Woking-based team “surprised” Ferrari once again, with the British side very much being on the rise.
“I put everything together today, the last sector was less good because I lost a bit of grip in the rear tyres, so I will have lost five cents which were important for gaining a couple of positions,” Leclerc said, as reported by OASport.it.
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“Honestly, however, the lap was good, we are struggling with the car’s performance at the moment, McLaren surprised again today: we expected them to have taken a step forward only in the fast corners and instead they went well even on a track like this.
“We need to work and we hope that the next updates will lead us to compete with them.”
Leclerc will be hoping to get amongst the top five on Sunday, especially as he led some of last season’s race in Hungary.