2026 Formula 1 Hungarian GP
F1 Hungarian GP live commentary and updates - FP2
Follow along for updates from Formula 1's second practice session at the Hungaroring
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And that's all from us today - thanks for joining us through both practice sessions!
We'll be back tomorrow for FP3 and for qualifying, so do join us then!
We'll be delving into the pace a little bit later, and this could be a round where a two-stop strategy is made possible due to the degradation around the circuit.
The heavy traction zones do tend to put a lot of stress on the rear tyres, and any sliding through the longer-radius corners will also put a bit of strain on the tyre surface.
And that brings an end to FP2! Hamilton and Leclerc lead a Ferrari 1-2, from Norris, Verstappen, Russell, Hadjar, Lawson, Piastri, Hulkenberg, and Lindblad.
Verstappen puts a move on Hamilton at Turn 1, which was a nice little move there. Leclerc meanwhile puts a move on Russell at Turn 2 - more overtaking than you'd probably expect to see around here! That said, I don't think the cars ahead are fighting to cling onto position...
We're into the race run phase at the moment, which we'll dissect in our usual pace analysis on Autosport a bit later on. Who's looking quick? Who's looking slow? We'll find out then!
Meanwhile, Verstappen complains of his rear axle locking. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg has a battle with Lindblad at Turn 2 - which certainly will be useful data for a race run!
Gasly goes 13th, while Alonso bails on his latest lap. Verstappen reports a debris-front wing interface issue.
Hamilton slides in with a second soft-tyre lap, and moves up to top spot with a 1m18.729s.
Antonelli has a massive lock-up at Turn 2. Those tyres will be good for nothing else except future use as a tyre barrier.
Leclerc moves up to top spot with a 1m18.877s, which really demonstrates the Ferrari pace thus far. Hamilton is just 0.037s short.
Alonso had got up to 14th, but he got caught out by track limits and he's dropped to 17th. Still, encouraging progress chez Aston Martin.
Bearman goes up to P13 on his latest effort. Bottas moves up to 17th, getting a nice tow from a Mercedes.
Antonelli opens a lap, but loses the rear on the entry to the Turn 6-7 chicane and waggles his way off-road. He locked the rear axle again, it seems.
Lawson moves up to seventh on his second run with the same softs.
The session now resumes, Bortoleto is first on the road. Alonso, Bottas, and Antonelli are next up, as the rest of the field attempts to find some space on the track.
Norris was on a quicker lap before the red flag struck; he was up on his best by about two tenths before Colapinto put his car in the wall.
Gasly and Piastri also had to abandon soft-tyre runs.
Antonelli's on a lap, but he has to abort as Colapinto has crashed at the final corner as he loses the rear.
The car spins, he goes in backwards - that's a red flag.
Hulkenberg goes up to fifth, before Hadjar noses ahead. Lawson is about two tenths off the Audi driver, while Lindblad duly drops between his team-mate and Hulkenberg.
Russell drops into fourth, 0.434s off Norris' pace, while Verstappen doesn't particularly care for his seating position and feels he's lying down too much.
It's time for soft-tyre runs now - Norris is now out on a lap, hoping to actually get a clean run done...
...and indeed, he sets a 1m19.228s to go top, 0.3s up on Hamilton's medium tyre effort.
Verstappen goes next, and is 0.193s shy of Norris' effort.
Antonelli moves up to fifth now, as he's found a bit of pace - but he's still 1.1s off Hamilton's current benchmark.
Piastri gets a bit closer to the pace of the Ferraris, and is now 1.2s off Hamilton's best effort.
Ferrari does have the early pace, with Leclerc looking good to find time on Hamilton - but went off at Turn 12 after a lock-up.
Alonso's showing the pace of the Aston Martin updates here, currently situated between Bearman and Perez on the leaderboard.
The Williams looks like a handful here, as Albon bounces across the second-sector chicane.
Russell has improved on that following lap, 0.887s, while Antonelli reported that he'd 'almost spun twice'. He's asked if he wants to change the aero balance.
Norris was on for a good lap, but went on the dust at the final corner and lost a heap of time.
"It feels dreadful, like the car is out of balance," Russell reports.
Piastri had an off in his first timed lap of the session, while Hadjar's tail was wagging out of the final corner and forced a correction as he crossed the line.
Leclerc stays second fastest, but goes 0.072s shy of Hamilton's opening effort.
"Something feels wrong on the car, it's extremely bad. It just feels broken in Turn 12," Gasly says.
Russell goes fourth with his first effort, but 1.7s off the pace. Verstappen then moves up to third.
Hamilton posts a 1m19.648s, which is 0.455s clear of Leclerc's first effort and just 0.6s down on Leclerc's soft-tyre effort from FP1.
Antonelli does his first timed lap of the weekend and goes up to eighth.
Colapinto opens with a 1m23.553s, which is quickly beaten by Gasly. Lawson, then Hulkenberg, immediately go quicker on their opening runs.
Leclerc then posts a more realistic effort with a 1m20.103s on the mediums to go top for now.
Indeed, Stroll won't be taking part in FP2 - not enough time to repair the damage, according to Aston Martin.
FP2 now under way
Here we go then, we're up and running. It seems like Ferrari is sticking with the winglets on the rear wing.
Lance Stroll's car, meanwhile, is still being rebuilt.
There's Bottas and there's Colapinto, on the road first.
Not long to go now until the cars roll out of the pit lane - FP2 should give us a bit of a better read of the pace here, as FP1 was a pretty messy session from a 'getting laps in' standpoint - traffic, wind, and a dirty track all had parts to play.
Newey on Aston Martin updates: "Provisional results are promising"
Adrian Newey made an appearance in the team representatives' press conference after FP1, although kept a lid on Aston Martin's expectations with the updated AMR26.
"Provisional results are promising. It's only part of the package so we'll have some more steps in Zandvoort and then further steps in Monza and Baku. So it's the first part of our planned upgrade. We're very short on parts so we're being careful with it and trying to learn all about it."
On Stroll's suspension issue in FP1, Newey stated that it was not a new part that had failed, although he was once more tight-lipped - perhaps a legacy of his Australia press conference appearance where he was a touch more...loquacious, let's say.
"As you can imagine everybody's feverishly trying to understand exactly what went wrong and what happened as we speak and it's only once we have an understanding that we can comment on what we do next but we obviously need to have a position fairly shortly ready for FP2."
Adrian Newey, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
FP2 coming up!
And hello again, welcome back to our live updates of practice at the Hungaroring - next stop: FP2.
We've got the usual complement of drivers for this one, as Fornaroli, Aron, Herta, Vesti, and Hirakawa all drove in FP1 - they'll be giving their seats back to the usual occupants.
Frederik Vesti, Mercedes
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
