The Japan Times - McLaren blown away by changing wind as Leclerc lands pole for Ferrari

Series leader Oscar Piastri and his team-mate and title rival Lando Norris had topped every outing on Friday and Saturday morning, but they had no answer when required to improve their pace in the final seconds of a close battle for pole.

"I think the wind changed a lot," said Piastri, who qualified second on the grid for Sunday's race.

"It always sounds so pathetic, blaming things on the wind, but the wind basically did a 180 from Q1 to Q3, so it just meant a lot of the corners felt completely different.

"My first lap in Q3 felt pretty terrible because I wasn't used to it and then I thought the second lap was better - but it was even slower.

"It's so difficult to judge in those conditions -- and maybe not the best execution. I was a bit surprised that we couldn't go quicker than that. Second is still a decent spot to start. We'll see what we can do tomorrow."

Norris, who is 16 points behind Piastri in the championship standings after 13 of this year's 24 races, said he felt the McLaren drivers had been too cautious in the changing conditions.

- 'Risked a bit' -

"I think Charles did a good job on the last lap and he probably risked a bit more in these conditions," said the British driver.

"The wind changed a lot and it really seemed to punish us in a bigger way it seems.

"I mean not too many complaints. It seems we both thought we did some good laps at the end and we were just slow, nothing to complain of. It's a long lap with many corners and so it's tricky.

"In Q2, we showed how quick we can go and our advantage, but as soon as the wind changed everything went away and the last sector became even trickier."

He added that he still held hopes for a good result to make inroads on Piastri's advantage in the title race.

"I want to go forwards and I want to win," said Norris.

"If I do that then I get points. I think it's going to be an exciting race and I would expect us to have a bit more pace than Charles so I'm looking forward to it."

With just 0.543 seconds separating Leclerc from 10th placed rookie Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, Saturday's qualifying was one of the closest sessions in Formula One history, bringing Leclerc his first pole in Hungary, his and Ferrari's first of the season and the 27th of his career.

He will start Sunday's race with Piastri second and Norris third, ahead of Mercedes' George Russell – the top four were separated by just 0.053 seconds – and the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto seventh ahead of Red Bull's four-time champion Max Verstappen and the two Racing Bulls rookies Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar.

T.Kobayashi--JT