Lando Norris’ pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix came as an unexpected bonus for McLaren, with team principal Andrea Stella admitting Ferrari remain the favourites for Sunday’s race despite the reigning world champion’s standout qualifying performance.
Norris delivered a stunning final lap at the Hungaroring to secure his first pole of the 2026 Formula One season, becoming the first non-Mercedes driver to top qualifying this year. The result also marked a major boost for McLaren after introducing performance upgrades this weekend.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start alongside Norris on the front row after teammate Lewis Hamilton was demoted three places for impeding McLaren’s Oscar Piastri during qualifying. Piastri, who had initially qualified fourth, moves up to third after Mercedes championship leader Kimi Antonelli was also handed a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags.
Despite locking out two of the top three grid positions, Stella insisted McLaren are not getting carried away.
“This is a nice surprise,” Stella told Sky Sports. “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.”
The McLaren boss believes Ferrari still hold the edge heading into Sunday’s race, particularly after both Leclerc and Hamilton failed to improve on their second flying laps in Q3.
“Honestly, tomorrow the Ferraris remain the favourites. Even in qualifying, neither of them improved on the second attempt, so I think they left a little bit of performance on the table,” Stella said.
“We take the encouraging indications from today’s result, but we remain realistic. There’s still quite a lot of work to do before we can consistently be in this position.”
Norris echoed his team principal’s assessment, admitting McLaren had exceeded expectations after a difficult run of qualifying performances.
“I’m pleasantly surprised,” Norris said. “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.”
The Briton, however, expects Ferrari to pose a major challenge over race distance.
“They’ve been fast all season, so I’m still expecting a tough race,” Norris said. “They did Q1 on the medium tyre, so it’ll be interesting to see what tyre they start on tomorrow. They may potentially be in a slightly better position with some things.”
With overtaking expected to be difficult around the Hungaroring, Norris will be hoping to convert pole into victory, but Ferrari’s front-row presence and reputation for strong starts ensure Sunday’s race remains wide open.
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