Charles Leclerc’s promising Hungarian Grand Prix weekend ended in bitter disappointment as the Monaco driver slipped from pole position to fourth place due to technical issues, missing on what could have been his first victory of the 2025 season.

The Monegasque pilot had given Ferrari fans and his home supporters plenty to celebrate on Saturday, claiming a surprise pole position at the Hungary GP that even caught himself off guard. Starting from the front of the grid, Leclerc initially demonstrated the pace to justify his qualifying performance, building a solid lead over McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the opening stages of Sunday’s 70-lap race.

However, what began as a fairy-tale weekend quickly turned into a nightmare for Charles Leclerc. Around lap 40, Leclerc began experiencing significant pace issues that would ultimately cost him any chance of victory and even a podium finish.

Speaking after the race, a visibly frustrated Leclerc revealed the true extent of the problems.

“From around lap 40 we had a problem with the chassis, now I’ve had more details about it,” Leclerc explained. “In the car obviously I had no idea what was going on. I mean I had an idea, but it was a wrong idea because I thought it was something that was in our control.”

The chassis issue proved to be beyond the team’s control during the race, leaving Leclerc powerless to maintain his early advantage. While the specific nature of the mechanical problem wasn’t detailed, it clearly affected the car’s handling and performance significantly. As his Ferrari began to struggle, he was first overtaken by Piastri for second place, before losing a fierce battle with Mercedes’ George Russel for the final podium.

Making matters even worse, Leclerc received a five-second time penalty for driving erratically during his defensive battle with Russel, ultimately closing the line in fourth position.

“Extremely frustrating” missed opportunity

For a driver who has experienced both high and lows of Formula 1, this particular disappointment seemed to cut especially deep.

“It’s just extremely frustrating when you are fighting for a win and when we had the pace that we had at the beginning of the race, and we lose absolutely everything later on, it’s very frustrating.” Leclerc said.

The timing of the mechanical failure made the setback even more painful. With Ferrari’s competing struggles this season, genuine victory opportunities have been rare, making each chance precious.

“When we have one opportunity in a year to win a race, we need to take it and today we didn’t,” he added. “Now we will analyse what are the reasons why we had this problem. I don’t think it’s anything that we had in our control, but we’ll check.”

McLaren dominates as Norris takes victory

While Leclerc’s race unravelled, McLaren capitalised on the opportunity with a thrilling 1-2 finish. Lando Norris, who had dropped positions at the start, recovered through an alternative one-stop strategy to claim his fifth victory of the 2025 season.

The British driver held off charging Oscar Piastri in a nail-biting finish, with Piastri making multiple attempts to pass his teammate in the closing laps. Their battle for victory provided the drama that Leclerc had hoped to be part of from the front.

George Russel completed the podium for Mercedes.

When asked about his mindset heading into the summer break, Leclerc explained that he is very disappointed and doesn’t take any positives from a weekend that ended like that.

The next opportunity for Leclerc to bounce back will come at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 29-31.

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Main photo credit: Ferrari