Leclerc (Ferrari/2nd): What he wants to do as well in Hungary as Vettel did in 2017

Be honest: can you off the top of your head name the last Ferrari driver to win the historic Hungarian Grand Prix? It was Sebastian Vettel nine years ago, in 2017 – that’s a hell of a long time ago!

This weekend, the Italians could turn that record around, as in both Friday free practice sessions a Scuderia driver in red was out in front; in the first 60 minutes, Silverstone winner Charles Leclerc was the fastest man, whilst in the second hour of practice it was Barcelona winner Lewis Hamilton, ahead of Leclerc.

Leclerc, who started from pole position at the Hungaroring in 2025, wants to match Vettel’s 2017 performance on 26 July, but the nine-time Grand Prix winner isn’t entirely convinced by Ferrari’s apparent competitiveness: “The weekend is still long. We often see certain teams make a leap in performance between Friday and Saturday. We’re usually a bit behind on the first day, so it’s good that we had a good Friday, but we need to keep at it and work hard to improve on Saturday.”

“As always, it’ll be a close affair in qualifying. I don’t expect us to have the same gap we had today, so we’ll have to get everything spot on. If the car feels right, then I’m sure we can put in a good performance in Q3.”

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