MAX CHILTON described the Hungarian Grand Prix as the hardest race of his young career after he struggled in the heat.
The Reigate racer finished 17th in his F1 debut at the Hungaroring circuit, which basked in temperatures that reached 51°C on track.
Chilton and his Marussia team-mate Jules Bianchi both had to deal with a number of challenges, including starting from the back of the grid, managing tyre degradation and the balance of the car.
And the 22-year-old, who finished three laps behind the winner Lewis Hamilton, said it was a tough day for him and his team.
"It was easily the hardest race of my career," he said.
"The track is challenging enough at the best of times, with little or no respite the whole lap - and there are 70 of them.
"Compounding things further for us was a real balance shift on the medium tyres, which we started the race on, and this eased only for a short while when we ran on the soft tyre for the second stint.
"This made it really difficult to drive the car for most of the race and at the same time try to manage the tyre degradation, so it really took every ounce of concentration and energy.
"These problems lost us a lot of time and this put us into blue flags much sooner and for a much longer period of time, which then causes you to lose even more time."
The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, beginning on August 23.
