Scuderia Ferrari HP comes away from the Hungarian Grand Prix with a fourth place courtesy of Charles Leclerc and a fifth from Lewis Hamilton.

The result can be put down to a less than perfect weekend that meant the team did not get a result that reflected the SF-26's true potential. At the Hungaroring, where overtaking is always extremely difficult, every element of the race execution is vitally important, and several aspects of qualifying and the race condemned Charles and Lewis to a rather frustrating Sunday stuck in traffic.

The Scuderia's race was more or less determined when the lights went out. Starting from the dirty side of the grid on used Soft tyres, Charles lost ground due to wheelspin, while Lewis, despite making a clean getaway on new Softs, was unable to get ahead of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, crossing the line at the end of the opening lap in fourth place, just ahead of his team-mate. From that moment on, both SF-26s found themselves trapped in traffic, never able to run in clean air and challenge the cars ahead. The team tried for a better outcome with its strategy: when Lewis made his first pit stop on lap 13, he managed to rejoin ahead of Verstappen, but the Dutchman reclaimed the position almost immediately. The order got shaken up a bit when Piastri stopped on track on lap 55. At that point the team opted to do a double stop to fit Soft tyres. Lewis lost position to Verstappen, but also to Kimi Antonelli coming out of pit lane, on top of which he was given a five second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. That dropped him behind his team-mate, although the team's overall points total remained unchanged at 22.

Formula 1 now pauses for the summer shutdown before returning to the track on 23 August at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix. The Scuderia is still second in the Constructors' championship, as is Lewis in the Drivers'. Charles is still fourth in the standings.

Charles Leclerc: We lost a few positions at the start, and on a track like this, where overtaking is so difficult, we just couldn't come back from that. The main challenge of my race was the grip. These new cars are extremely sensitive to the smallest changes and the same tyre compound can feel different across stints.

We looked strong on Friday but our competitors were conservative and we realised after qualifying that we would struggle a bit more than it first seemed. We have performed very well on tracks we did not expect to do so well on and not reached our goals on tracks we expected to be strong.

The whole team back home in Maranello and at the track has done an amazing job in bringing upgrades to our package, which has allowed us to make solid progress and be competitive, including winning two races. Now we will take some time to recharge and come back stronger, analysing our season so far and continuing on this positive trajectory after the summer break.

Lewis Hamilton: I'm really grateful to everyone in the team for the work they've put in over the first half of the season. We've made some genuine progress, and the car was good again this weekend, which is very positive.

It's obviously frustrating to come away with so little when the potential was there. Everyone back at the factory and here at the track has worked incredibly hard to keep moving us forward, so it's disappointing not to convert that into the result we were capable of.

The last few races have been costly on my side, with too many points left on the table. But I'm still second in the championship, there's a long way to go, and there are plenty of opportunities ahead.

The summer break is a chance to reset, recharge and come back with the same determination. We'll keep pushing, keep improving, and I'm confident we can come back strong for the second part of the season.

Fred Vasseur: The race did not go well for us, with too many issues and mistakes, even if the first of those was made yesterday in qualifying. At the start Charles dropped from P2 to P5 after Turn 1, because he had too much wheelspin and we found ourselves with both cars not only behind (Oscar) Piastri but also behind (Max) Verstappen. We did the right thing undercutting Verstappen but we then lost the position again on track. In the end we pitted both cars for Softs as Lewis was on used Hards and would have been vulnerable. On a positive note, we have closed a bit more the gap to Mercedes. Now it's time to recharge the batteries to come back stronger in the second part of the season.