Lando Norris remained at the top during the second practice session in the Hungarian Grand Prix, which extended his advantage compared to teammate Oscar Piastri from the first session.
The two McLaren controllers were separated by only 0.019s in FP1, but Norris put together a stronger run on low fuel and soft tires in the second session to pull 0.291s free of Piastri. That result was despite the fact that Norris almost dropped it in a second timed attempt, while the Brit baptized his outer tires on the grass at the deployment point for the last corner and eventually recovered in the Run-Off area.
The top three drivers remained the same from FP1 to FP2, where Charles Leclerc also slipped behind Norris when he finished 0.4s eagerly from the lead McLaren. Leclerc was also less than 0.1s free from Lance Stroll in the fourth, because Aston Martin enjoyed a more competitive start to the weekend than in Belgium.
Fernando Alonso was back in action after the first practice session to control a muscular injury in his back, back to his car after Felipe Drugovich had replaced him in FP1. The Spaniard wasted no time to get informed, and completed 25 laps – only three less than teammate walks – because the couple both ended up in the top five.
There was a strange moment for Max Verstappen during what was a non -competitive session for the title defender, because he found what a reserve Balaclava seemed to be in his cockpit while he was on track.
Instead of returning to the pits with the item, Verstappen went to the inside of the circuit and threw it away, with the stewards that stated that they would investigate the incident after the session. The investigation relates to the car that is reportedly released in an unsafe state, instead of where the Dutchman threw the item.
Verstappen finished 14th in the rankings, more than 0.3s slower than teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who was fastest and reported on the radio during his long term: “I don’t know what’s going on, it’s just unacceptable. I can’t get a balance.”
The vote of the Red Bull director will also not have been helped due to the long-term pace, because he was on average about 0.8s per round slower than Piastri on the medium band, and 0.3s from what Leclerc posted.
Of the top four teams, Mercedes also seemed to struggle for a long-term pace, with George Russell another 0.4s per round of Verstappen and more than a second of the McLaren tempo at his racing simulation.
Russell finished on the seventh fastest in general and the best part of 0.8s from Norris’s lap, just behind Lewis Hamilton and for Isack Hadjar, because Racing Bulls still had a strong start of a racing weekend.
Result
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