Hamilton tells himself to 'step it up' after Spa setbacks

Lewis Hamilton says he needs to "step it up" at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix after admitting "can't afford" to repeat the crash that compromised his weekend in Belgium amid Ferrari's competitive form.

Hamilton finished fourth last Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps but felt he could have challenged for the win had he crashed at the end of final practice on Saturday in an accident that required a host of parts to be replaced on his car ahead of qualifying.

Team-mate Charles Leclerc qualified and finished ahead of Hamilton for the second race in a row with the Monegasque, while gaining race time through a fortuitously timed Virtual Safety Car, eventually finishing just two seconds behind race winner Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader.

• Hungarian GP: UK schedule and how to watch on Sky Sports
• F1 2026 standings | F1 2026 Calendar | F1 Gossip Column
• Download the Sky Sports app for expert analysis, best video & more📱
• Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW📺

With Ferrari performing better than they had expected relative to Mercedes on the high-speed tracks of Silverstone, where Leclerc won, and now Spa, the Scuderia are being tipped to run particularly strongly at the Hungaroring this weekend, a circuit which will play more to their car's cornering strengths.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 whether he was confident he could gather more momentum over the rest of the season, Hamilton said: "I think so. This weekend was a bit unfortunate and Silverstone [was] again.

"It's really great to see the performance that we are bringing and we are improving the car constantly. I think we have got more stuff coming in the pipeline to try and close that gap down.

"But to be here and have that pace generally that we did as a team is really encouraging.

"There's still a long, long way to go.

"Can't afford weekends like this in a sense of my performance [on Saturday] so I'm going to step it up in terms of focus level for next week."

Although he finished off the podium for just the second time in six races, Hamilton moved back ahead of George Russell into second place in the Drivers' Championship after the former team-mates made contact and the Mercedes driver spun out on the first lap.

Hamilton, who received a five-second penalty from stewards for the incident, is 45 points behind Antonelli.

The seven-time world champion has won a record eight times in Hungary, while the circuit was also the scene of his most-recent Grand Prix pole position in 2023.

Leclerc encouraged but 'not yet' at level he wants to be

The races at Silverstone and Spa also confirmed an overdue return to form for Leclerc, who had been struggling to tailor his driving style to the demands of the 2026 cars and had endured a difficult run of results.

Leclerc remains cautious about agreeing with suggestions he has made an absolute breakthrough but is encouraged by his recent rate of improvement.

"I'm confident in saying that I made a step forward. Whether I'm at the level where I want to perform, not yet," said Leclerc.

"There are still things in the car that I need to drive around. I cannot drive completely naturally, and that is slowing me down in some parts of the race.

"So, there are still things that I've got to work on in order to be better. But surely it was a step forward, and for that I'm happy.

"I'll continue with the one-race-at-a-time approach because, with these cars, it's very difficult to be confident that if one race weekend goes well, the other one will, because it relies on such small details.

"With what you do with your driving, it's never a given that you get the same deployment from one lap to the other, and that's maybe the frustrating bit about these cars."

Formula 1 heads straight to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix with every session live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime