Scuderia Ferrari leaves Hungary having secured seventh place with Charles Leclerc and eighth with Carlos Sainz. The race itself did not produce any great drama, although for Leclerc there were some unforeseen incidents in the pit lane. Charles was on used Mediums for the start and got ahead of Guanyu Zhou for fifth place, while Carlos got away really well on new Softs, passing no fewer than five cars to tuck in behind his team-mate. The SF-23s had good pace in the first stint, matching the McLarens and Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, but at his first pit stop to switch to Hard tyres, Charles’ race got complicated: a wheel gun did not work and he lost around seven seconds, dropping several places. Charles soon made up ground, closing on Carlos, so that they were sixth and seventh and their pace on this compound was also consistent. Leclerc came in for his second stop on lap 43, taking on another set of Hards, but he exceeded the pit lane speed limit on his way in, for which he was given a five second penalty to add to his total race time. Carlos tried to extend his stint, but he and the team decided on the next lap to come in for another set of Hard tyres. In the closing stages, the SF-23 lost pace and Russell, with fresher tyres on his Mercedes was able to pass Sainz for seventh and then got to within under five seconds of Leclerc, thus taking sixth place without having to pass him on track. The championship is back in action immediately next week, on the very different Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian Grand Prix, which is the final round prior to the summer break.
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