Ferrari star admits battle with 'impossible' issues ahead of F1 summer break

Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc has opened up on 'impossible' issues with his SF-25 car which prevented him from claiming victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Leclerc claimed his first pole position of the season on Saturday, stunning the two McLarens with a brilliant lap, while his seven-time world champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton could only qualify down in 12th.

It was Leclerc's 27th career pole position, but across his time in F1, he has only converted five of those starts into race victories.

At the start of the Hungarian GP, Leclerc looked as though he may have the pace to challenge for the win, staying ahead of both McLaren championship contenders in the early stages, and even pulling away from championship leader Oscar Piastri at one point.

However, the Monegasque driver's pace seemed to rapidly drop off in the second half of the race, and he eventually ended up finishing outside of the podium positions, and over 42 seconds behind race winner Lando Norris.

Leclerc appeared to be extremely frustrated with his team over team radio, and claimed after Sunday's main event that there had been 'issues' that made a win unattainable in Budapest.

Leclerc has now taken to social media to issue an honest reflection of his race weekend, revealing the extent to which his car was hampered by problems.

"A weekend of ups and downs," he said in a post on Instagram. "First pole of the season but unfortunately a much more difficult race with issues that made the win impossible.

"We’ll keep pushing for the second half but before that, it’s time to resttttttttt."

Leclerc has upper hand at Ferrari

F1 now heads into its summer break, where all drivers and team personnel must have at least 14 days off consecutively with no simulator work, factory work or testing able to take place in that time to ensure everyone has a proper break from a hectic 24-race season.

Out of the two Ferrari drivers, it is clearly Hamilton who is more in need of time away from the track, in order to reset and come back stronger in the second half of the year.

Hamilton has been beaten by Leclerc in 10 out of 14 grand prix qualifying sessions since the pair became team-mates back in January, and Leclerc is sat 42 points ahead of the Brit in the drivers' championship.

On top of this, Leclerc has achieved five grand prix podiums and now a pole position, while Hamilton's record on both of those two fronts is sat at zero.

Leclerc's brilliant performances are clearly putting pressure on the seven-time world champion, with Hamilton suggesting in an extraordinary outburst during the Hungarian GP weekend that he was 'useless', and that his team should consider replacing him.

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