OMNISPORT

Charles Leclerc acknowledged he must learn from his mistakes after the Ferrari driver crashed in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix but still secured fourth spot on the grid.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen cruised to his first career pole in Hungary, ahead of Mercedes duo Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

Leclerc finished fourth, though was fortunate to be able to continue after he veered out of control and damaged his rear wing when hitting a wall in Q1.

"I've been very lucky to go again and I have to thank the team for what they did," Leclerc told Sky Sports after qualification had finished. "It was a completely unnecessary mistake at that moment in qualy, and that's two mistakes in two grand prix races.

"I need to learn from these mistakes, and I need to work on that, but on the other hand Q3 was very positive. I was very happy with my lap overall."

Verstappen's pole comes on the back of two victories in the past three races and Sebastian Vettel - who will start fifth on the grid on Sunday - always expected Red Bull to have the advantage.

"It's down to downforce. I don't think they've found anything, they were quick already the weeks before coming here," said Vettel, who along with teammate Leclerc will start with medium tires, unlike the softs used by the leading trio.

"Obviously they have a bit of a disadvantage on the engine side, but coming here, the engine is not important. So we knew they'd be strong and we knew Mercedes would be strong, but obviously we can't be happy sitting further back and not being able to intervene in that fight.

"Hopefully the tires can melt, and we end up with more stops than one, otherwise it will be difficult."