Explained: Why was Charles Leclerc given a 5-second penalty during the F1 Hungarian GP

Charles Leclerc received a five-second time penalty during the recently concluded Hungarian GP. The Ferrari driver, as per the FIA, was moving under braking during his battle against George Russell, and as a result, was penalized for erratic driving.

After a brilliant qualifying performance on Saturday, Leclerc started the race from pole. However, he soon faced the pace of the McLaren duo, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, and was barely a match for the MCL39s.

However, Leclerc also had Russell in contention for his podium, and the two were soon involved in a battle for track positions. As they were involved in an on-track battle, Leclerc was defending his place from the Mercedes driver.

In doing so, the #16 was moving under braking to break the tow, and avoid giving Russell the slipstream. However, this was deemed dangerous by the FIA, and they soon took it under review. In the end, the FIA came out with a verdict and handed the Ferrari driver a five-second time penalty.

Sharing the explanation, the FIA released a statement. Here's what the statement said:

"Car 63 moved to overtake Car 16 on the inside into Turn 1. Car 16 moved towards Car 63 on the main straight before braking and subsequently moved a second time, now under braking, nearly causing a collision with Car 63. The Stewards consider both moves combined to constitute erratic driving." "The Stewards took into account that Car 63 succeeded in overtaking Car 16 and that there was no contact and in these circumstances apply a less severe penalty than might have been applied in different circumstances," the statement added.

However, the penalty did not affect Charles Leclerc much as he remained P4. Lando Norris of McLaren claimed the victory, ahead of his teammate, Oscar Piastri. Russell, who eventually overtook Leclerc, finished P3.

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Charles Leclerc let his feelings known after Hungarian GP

Charles Leclerc shared his thoughts after the Hungarian GP at Hungaroring. Speaking about his race, the Ferrari driver was far from impressed. Here's what he told Sky Sports about it during his post-race interview:

Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Scuderia Ferrari SF-25- Source: Getty

"Very disappointed. I don't take any positives from this weekend, when we end the weekend like that, when we have one opportunity in a year to win a race, we need to take it, and today we didn't." "And, now we will analyze the reasons why we had this probably. I don't think it's a problem we had in our control, but we will check," he further added.

After 14 races and three Sprints, Charles Leclerc is P5 in the Drivers' Championship with 151 points. Compared to him, his teammate, Lewis Hamilton is P6 with 109 points.

Edited by Tushar Bahl