Question marks after the Hungarian GP: Charles Leclerc disappointed despite 4th place

Expectations were high for a top result in the final race before the summer break; after all, Charles Leclerc was set to start the eleventh Grand Prix of the season from the front row at the Hungaroring. The weekend in Hungary had gone well up until the start of the race, but the momentum was lost as the lights went out.

Leclerc dropped back to fifth place on the first lap, but thanks to a five-second penalty for his team-mate Lewis Hamilton – who was penalised for exceeding the speed limit in the pit lane – the Monegasque driver managed to cross the line in fourth place. But that was no victory for him.

After the race, the 28-year-old lamented: “It’s been a disappointing weekend, and for me the key point is that in the last three rounds of the World Championship we’ve had two races where we expected to face difficulties, but we finished in first and second place. And on this circuit, which we consider to be a good fit for our car, we couldn’t manage better than fourth place.”

More consistent performance needed

Leclerc emphasised that this applied to both sides of the pit: “There’s a clear trend here; it’s not as though one driver is performing well simply because he’s doing particularly well. Both cars are strong on the circuits where we expected to face problems. And both are struggling where we expect a strong result. We need to understand that first.”

Although this pattern raises questions, Leclerc also identified a factor after the chequered flag that contributed significantly to the result in Hungary: “We paid a high price for the poor start. But we were never dominant at any point in the race. The first stint on the hard compound wasn’t bad. And the last one on the soft tyres was pretty good too. But there were too many ups and downs. And I think that’s something we really need to work on; we need to become more consistent. Because Lewis didn’t have the same issues. It’s just strange how disjointed it all looks.”

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