Leclerc: It's very frustrating, we're not even on the podium

The Monegasque driver surprised many by qualifying his Ferrari SF-25 on pole, narrowly beating out the McLaren of Championship leader Oscar Piastri by just 0.026 seconds.

From there just as many expected Leclerc to quickly fall behind Piastri and the other McLaren of Lando Norris in the race. However, this didn't happen, and Leclerc looked comfortable at the head of the field on his opening Medium tyre stint.

Unfortunately for the Ferrari driver, mechanical issues started to plague his car around halfway through the Grand Prix, all but evaporating his advantage out front. Piastri overtook him on lap 51, and the Mercedes of George Russell snatched away the final podium spot with just a handful of laps remaining.

To cap off a disastrous Sunday, Leclerc received a five-second penalty for moving under braking and almost causing a collision as he defended into Turn 1 against Russell, which the race stewards deemed to be "driving erratically".

In the end, the Hungarian Grand Prix was won by Norris, with Piastri and Russell rounding out the podium.

Leclerc was keen to lay out the full extent of his struggles behind the wheel in the media pen after the race.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the Grand Prix, Leclerc explained that an issue with the chassis of his SF-25 was to blame for his sudden drop in performance.

He said: "I spoke too quickly I guess because getting out of the car I got a few more details about what went on.

"I thought it was about something else that we had discussed but unfortunately it was a problem on the chassis. There was an issue on that side so we will look into it for it to not happen again.

"It doesn’t make me feel any better because when you are fighting for a win and then you have those kind of issues. We need to look at it for it to never happen again as the car was just undriveable," Leclerc added.

The 27-year-old believes that this was an isolated incident, and therefore shouldn't occur again in following races.

He continued: "It was a one-off so it’s something we need to look into but I don’t think it’s something we will have ever again.

"It was around lap 40 when we started to have the issue and then it got worse and worse.

"It’s very frustrating to have everything under control, have the pace in the car to win, and then you are nowhere. We’re not even on the podium."

Leclerc will be hoping for better fortunes at the Dutch Grand Prix, but he will have to wait a while as it commences Sunday 31 August at 14:00 BST (15:00 local time).