Charles Leclerc secured a surprise pole position for Ferrari in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying - and his team radio afterwards spoke volumes.
The Monegasque driver did not look in contention for the front rows of the grid after scraping through the second session, but made his Q3 fast lap count.
His time of 1:15.372 was enough to place him ahead of the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who were simply unable to go faster on their final runs.
Only 0.126 seconds separated Leclerc and sixth-placed Lance Stroll, however, which could make for a competitive race on Sunday.
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The Ferrari driver's lap time was made all the more remarkable by the fact that his first Q3 lap, albeit on used tyres, was 1.3 seconds behind pacesetter Piastri.
You can see his pole position lap below.
Both McLaren drivers were expected to occupy the front rows in Budapest but did not extract any extra pace out of their cars and were unusually far slower than their times in Q2.
Given McLaren's dominance this season - the Woking-based team has nearly double the amount of Constructors' Championship points than second-placed Ferrari - Leclerc's radio message upon hearing of his pole position spoke volumes.
When race engineer Bryan Bozzi informed him that he had set the fastest lap, Leclerc replied: "What? Hahaha. Mamma mia! Vai [go]!"
The pair then exchanged words in Italian.
The Ferrari driver is in the ideal starting position on a track that is notoriously difficult to overtake on - though the threat of potential rain and thunderstorms could bring strategy into play.
Leclerc reacts to surprise Hungarian GP pole
Leclerc told reporters after the session: "I honestly have no words. It's probably one of the best pole positions I've ever had because it's the most unexpected for sure.
"It was super difficult for us to get to Q2 and Q3. In Q3, the conditions changed a little bit and everything became a lot trickier. I knew I had to just do a clean lap to target third.
"At the end of the day, it's pole position, and I definitely did not expect that.
"The start and turn one will be key. I have no idea how it will go. One thing for sure is that I will do absolutely everything in order to keep that first place."
It was a less than ideal session for Leclerc's Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who was eliminated in the second session of qualifying.
The seven-time world champion suffered a snap of oversteer in the penultimate corner and could only qualify 12th at one of his traditionally favoured circuits, though it is unclear as to whether he would have made it through even without that moment.
Hamilton started 16th in Belgium last weekend but took advantage of changeable conditions to rise to seventh place by the chequered flag.
Topics: Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Hungarian Grand Prix, Formula 1, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris
Ryan Smart