Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc had every right to be upset after missing out on a podium at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc produced another fantastic lap in qualifying to grab the 27th pole position of his Formula 1 career.
He admitted before the race that it was ‘the most unexpected pole position’ of his career, and the Ferrari driver got off to the perfect start on Sunday.
Leclerc held off Oscar Piastri and watched Lando Norris briefly drop down to fifth, and after two rounds of pit stops, it looked like the Monegasque driver was in the strongest position to win the Hungarian Grand Prix.
However, as the race went on, the one-stop strategy Norris was forced onto looked stronger and stronger, but by the closing stages, Leclerc wasn’t concerned about victory.
RANKDRIVERTEAMPOINTS1Lando NorrisMcLaren252Oscar PiastriMcLaren183George RussellMercedes154Charles LeclercFerrari125Fernando AlonsoAston Martin106Gabriel BortoletoSauber87Lance StrollAston Martin68Liam LawsonRacing Bulls49Max VerstappenRed Bull210Kimi AntonelliMercedes1
Instead, his car was suddenly two seconds per lap slower, with George Russell and Anthony Davidson perplexed by Leclerc’s lack of pace.
Leclerc never caught up to Norris, and Piastri passed him with ease, meaning the battle was between George Russell and Leclerc for the final spot on the podium.
It took the Mercedes driver two attempts to pass Leclerc, but the Monegasque driver’s second defensive effort was questionable to say the least.
Pundit James Hinchcliffe believes the five-second penalty Leclerc received was far too lenient, and the stewards should be allowed to be far harsher in these situations.
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Photo by Clive Rose/Getty ImagesJames Hinchcliffe says Charles Leclerc should have got a ‘positional’ penalty at the Hungarian Grand Prix
James Hinchcliffe was asked if he agreed with the five-second time penalty Leclerc was given during the race on Formula 1’s official Post-Race Show and said: “It was on the edge, for sure.
“It’s probably appropriate, but ultimately, it doesn’t cost you anything when you’re 20 seconds ahead of the next car.
“I feel like blocking penalties, as you take a look here, Russell’s very clearly out and makes the move first. That’s the whole thing.
“You can’t move in reaction to it, you’ve got to pre-empt the move from the car in front.
“He moved first, then Charles moved, tried this over-under to cut back into turn two. So, that was probably an earned penalty. But it’s not a penalty.
“The reason you don’t want to move under braking it’s a safety thing. And I feel like, if it’s a safety thing, it should be a position penalty, rather than a time penalty, because safety is the most important thing.
“And if we’re ignoring that by knowing you’ve got enough of a gap to do something dangerous, then what’s the deterrent there?”
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Fred Vasseur admits he ‘perfectly’ understands why Charles Leclerc was so frustrated
Leclerc managed to lose ground to his closest rival, Russell, in the drivers’ championship as a result of his car issues.
There’s still a chance that Leclerc matches his third-place finish in the standings from last season, but he needs Ferrari to work out exactly what went wrong in Hungary and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 284 2 275 3 187 4 172 5 151 6 109 7 64 8 54 9 37 10 27
Team principal Fred Vasseur was asked about the weekend during his official media session and said: “In the race, the first two stints of Charles were under control, the first especially was very good, Charles pulling out a gap over the McLarens and Russell.
“He came under a bit more pressure in the second stint, and then in the final one, we were losing two seconds a lap.
“Now we need to understand what happened on the chassis that made the car so hard for Charles to drive. At least we got the points for fourth place because there was even some doubt that Charles could finish the race.
“I can understand perfectly his frustration as we were covering Piastri and he had the performance in his pocket to do it.”