Stella reveals why McLaren " have a bit more work to do than anticipated"

Although McLaren displayed an absolutely dominant performance across the practice sessions at the Hungaroring, the Woking-based outfit was left puzzled in the all-important qualifying, leaving team boss Andrea Stella to claims that they will now have "a bit more work to do than anticipated."

McLaren showed eye-catching pace across the practice sessions, with Lando Norris dominating the Friday’s practices before his team-mate Oscar Piastri bounced back in the third and final session.

However, the MCL39 looked to struggle slightly when conditions changed for qualifying. Despite this, it looked to all the world that Norris and Piastri will battle it out for the pole position as they topped the timing sheets in Q1 and Q2.

However, they were unable to improve their times on their second set of soft tyres massively, whilst Ferrari's Charles Leclerc found a big improvement to snatch away the pole position from Piastri and Norris who will line up second and third on the grid on Sunday.

Reflecting on McLaren's qualifying, team boss Andrea Stella stated: "Today’s Qualifying was an interesting session. We saw competitive, good lap times from both Oscar and Lando in Q1 and Q2.

"While the performance of the car looked like we were in a strong position to challenge for Pole, the variable conditions with a change of wind and a drop in temperature meant that we couldn't replicate that pace in Q3.

“Well done to Ferrari and Charles Leclerc for adapting to the changing conditions and managing to go a little bit faster in Q3, securing Pole position.

Stella continued: "We now have a bit more work to do than anticipated in tomorrow’s race, but we can be confident in the challenge ahead as the car's race pace is competitive."