George Russell has shared an intriguing theory behind Charles Leclerc’s loss of pace on his final stint at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday. The Mercedes driver has claimed that Ferrari may have been running its car too low to the ground, and had to compensate with increased tire pressures, leading to a loss of performance for Leclerc.

Leclerc was in the lead for the majority of the first half of the Hungarian GP after getting a great start off pole position. But after his second and final pitstop, the Monegasque was well off the pace of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. He was also much slower than Russell, who eventually ended up pipping him for the final podium position.

After the race, Russell shared an interesting theory about why Leclerc lost out during his final stint at the Hungaroring. The Briton claimed that Ferrari may have been running the car too low initially, and had to adjust tire pressures towards the end to compensate.

“I saw how slow he [Leclerc] was so I presumed something was not right. The only thing we can think of is that they [Ferrari] were running the car too low to the ground and they had to increase the tire pressures for the last stint,” said Russell. [via Sky Sports]

“Because they were using an engine mode that was making the engine slower at the end of the straight, which is where you have the most amount of plank-wear,” he added.

Charles Leclerc was frustrated after losing out on a potential win during the Hungarian GP. This was not only reflected in his angry radio calls to the Ferrari pit wall, but also through his aggressive defensive driving against George Russell.

The eight-time race-winner moved not once but twice under braking when Russell attempted an overtake into turn 1 towards the end of the race. This uncharacteristic move by Leclerc generated an angry radio call from Russell and led to a five-second time penalty for the driver.

George Russell reflects on “strange” Hungarian GP weekend

George Russell has labeled the Hungarian GP weekend as “strange” due to the mixed final results in the race on Sunday. The 27-year-old claimed that Mercedes will not get too carried away with their result at the Hungaroring.

Speaking to the aforementioned outlet after the race, Russell claimed that the whole grid was jumbled at the end of the race, except for the McLarens.

“Really pleased with the result. Strange weekend. When you look at, if you exclude McLaren, then you look at the order of, sort of, P3 to P13, it’s quite odd,” said Russell.

“You wouldn’t expect Max to be so far down, Aston Martin had an amazing weekend. So we’ll take the positives but we won’t get carried away with it,” he added.

With his result in Hungary, George Russell has made up a few points on Max Verstappen in P3 in the drivers’ standings. He now sits just 15 points behind the reigning world champion, who has lost pace with the McLaren drivers in front of him in the standings.