Charles Leclerc makes Lewis Hamilton feelings abundantly clear after Hungarian GP disaster

Charles Leclerc has come out to bat for Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton after a miserable Hungarian Grand Prix outing. The seven-time world champion was knocked out in Q2 on Saturday and crossed the line down in 12th on Sunday, eight positions behind his colleague at Maranello. This marked the second successive weekend of turmoil for the legendary Brit, who was forced to recover from a pit lane start to finish P7 in Belgium, with his team-mate on the podium.

The mood in the Ferrari camp right now is sullen, but the No.44 garage is certainly worse than that of the No.16 car. After climbing out of the cockpit at the Hungaroring, Hamilton doubled down on his eye-catching comments from the previous day. The Brit said: "There's a lot going on in the background that is not... great, so..." He did at least caveat the doom and gloom by adding: "I'm sure there are positives to take from the weekend and I'm sure there's learnings."

Just 24 hours earlier, Hamilton described his performance as "useless" and urged Ferrari to "change driver", sparking widespread concern for the 40-year-old's confidence levels heading into the summer break.

Team-mate Leclerc was asked about these statements, and provided a classy response, backing his Ferrari colleague and friend to bounce back. "At the end, we are one team," he declared.

"And as much as I want to finish in front of Lewis, I want both of us to be successful, and Ferrari to be successful. Obviously, this weekend has been a tough one for Lewis, but I have no doubt it's a one-off, and I'm sure the second part of the season will be a lot more positive."

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Leclerc experienced his own frustrations in Hungary, at the track he declared to be his worst in Formula One heading into the weekend. The 27-year-old seized a surprise pole position from the grasp of the title-hunting McLaren duo, but things unravelled after the lights went out.

Initially, Leclerc looked strong. He held off championship leader Oscar Piastri during the opening stage of the race, but when the strategies were split with Lando Norris running long, the Monegasque racer was forced into management mode, destroying his pace. He limped home in fourth place after losing the final spot on the podium to George Russell.

"I don't think we are going into the second half of the season thinking that we can win anywhere," he sighed. "And that's what makes the frustration even bigger, because we knew that this was one opportunity probably over the season and we had to take it, but unfortunately with this issue we couldn't do much."