Leclerc reveals how Ferrari's recent upgrades helped him claim a shock pole position at the Hungaroring

Having grabbed a shock pole position in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was left to praise the Scuderia for recent upgrades that offered "a big boost."

Ferrari endured a challenging day at the Hungaroring. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton displayed great pace in final practice, ending up third and fourth, respectively.

However, the conditions changed massively for qualifying, with track temperatures having dropped and the wind having picked up. This seemingly affected Ferrari more than their rivals.

Hamilton struggled in Q1, but made it through into Q2, albeit he was unable to achieve anything more than a P12 on the grid for tomorrow’s Budapest race.

His team-mate Leclerc struggled across the opening two sessions as well, but progressed into Q3. After his first hot lap, he found himself in a disappointing P7, but he delivered again when it mattered to secure an absolutely astonishing pole position for tomorrow’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ferrari rectified key issues with its car early on in the season, and came up with a vital upgrade package in two steps. In Austria, the Scuderia brought a heavily-upgraded floor to the SF-25 before introducing a significantly-revised rear suspension at last Sunday's Spa-Francorchamps race.

Asked whether recent upgrades helped Ferrari achieve their first pole position of the season, Leclerc noted: "It's a big boost. I mean, the team has been pushing like crazy to bring upgrades. Last weekend, the team have brought an upgrade as well, and it helped us to go in the right direction.

"We didn't know how much. And as I said in Spa, I think we need to judge over a few races and not only one. But I also think that the upgrade in Spa definitely helped me to extract a little bit more.

"And as I've often been saying before Spa, I had to set up the car in a very, very extreme way early on in the season to try and extract something out of this car in qualifying.

"However, it was making everything very inconsistent and I was struggling to be on top of the car all the time. The upgrade helped me to be a bit more in a reasonable window car-wise, and it feels like it's fitting a little bit more the way I drive in qualifying when I start pushing.

"And that's really important because since the beginning of the season, I've been struggling particularly in quali, which is normally one of my strengths."