03/08/2025
NEWS STORY
Charles had a good start on new Medium tyres and kept the lead off the start line, while Lewis, on Hards, lost two places.
On lap 20 Charles pitted for new Hards, the stop taking 2 seconds dead. Further down the order, Lewis struggled to overtake in DRS traffic. On lap 29 Max Verstappen passed Lewis at turn 4, the Englishman having to run off the track. The episode would be looked at after the race by the stewards. On lap 40 Charles made a second pit stop, fitting new Hards and rejoining fourth. From this point on, a problem developed on Charles' chassis which cost him 2 seconds per lap. Lewis pitted for his only stop two laps later, fitting new Mediums. Because of the chassis issue, Charles dropped back and was overtaken on lap 50 by Oscar Piastri. Over the last 10 laps Charles fought hard to keep George Russell behind but had to give best with 8 laps remaining, to finish fourth, while Lewis crossed the line in 12th place.
Charles Leclerc: This is not the outcome we hoped for but there was nothing we could have done to control it considering the issue we had. I got some more insight into what was happening after getting out of the car and it turns out that we had an issue on the chassis that started just about when I began to feel a difference in how the car behaved. It's frustrating, because I think we could have won today, but we will return after the summer break and give it our all to come back stronger.
Lewis Hamilton: It's been a challenging weekend and one to move on from. We weren't able to make the progress we hoped for but I'm grateful for the effort everyone in the team put in throughout the weekend. Now we head into the break. I'll be using the time to reset, recharge and come back stronger. I'm not where I want to be yet, but the fight's not over - don't count me out.
Fred Vasseur: The weekend went pretty well at first, in the practice sessions and in quali. 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. As for Lewis, starting on Hards, he lost a couple of places and that put him in traffic in a very long DRS train, which is the worst possible scenario. That's what decided us to go for a one-stop with him. Looking at the positives, of course yesterday we got our first pole position of the season and for the first part of the race we were matching McLaren in terms of pace and we had a 15 second lead over Russell. But then we lost everything and didn't have the pace anymore so now we have to investigate why.
Check out our Sunday gallery from the Hungaroring here.