Practice report

F1 Hungarian GP: Lewis Hamilton tops FP2 as Franco Colapinto brings out red flags

Hamilton tops Friday practice at Formula 1's Hungarian Grand Prix as low-grip conditions cause headaches throughout the field

Lewis Hamilton ended Hungary's second Formula 1 practice session on top, pipping Ferrari stablemate Charles Leclerc at a slippery Hungaroring circuit.

George Russell reported a "dreadful" rear balance, Kimi Antonelli reported rear locking, Leclerc locked up the front in Turn 1, and Pierre Gasly was convinced something was wrong with his car, such was its recalcitrant behaviour, before Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto found the barriers. It's just a small snapshot of F1's drivers being all at sea on Budapest's twisty Hungaroring in Friday practice.

Between significantly cooler track conditions and heavier gusts of winds, finding the right car balance on the bumpy and low-grip circuit proved a huge undertaking, with parts of the 4.381km layout also clad in brand-new tarmac.

Ferrari initially appeared to cope best with the change in conditions compared to FP1, with Hamilton's 1m19.648s effort leading the early running on mediums, narrowly ahead of Leclerc while Red Bull's Max Verstappen followed seven tenths in arrears.

While Hamilton nibbled at his own benchmark with a 1m19.585s lap, McLaren's Lando Norris went purple before having to let it go in the final corner, narrowly avoiding a spin as he nursed his car back onto the main straight.

It took until around the halfway point for teams to start deploying the soft C5 tyres, with world champion Norris vaulting to the top of the order with a 1m29.228s on Pirelli's red-walled rubber. That was two tenths quicker than Verstappen managed on his subsequent tour, both struggling to find proportionate gains compared to Hamilton's time on mediums.

Mercedes struggled in Hungary

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

Mercedes had a hard time matching its rivals, with Russell initially four tenths off in fourth while Antonelli caught a red flag on his hot lap after 32 minutes. That stoppage was caused by Alpine's Colapinto, who tagged the barriers at the final corner after losing the rear of his car on entry.

As the session went green again, Antonelli's lap came undone again with a gnarly slide through the Turn 6 chicane, his rear axle issue clearly not fixed just yet.

In the final 20 minutes, Ferrari did get a few cleaner laps in with Leclerc's 1m18.877s just 0.037s faster than Hamilton's offering, before the seven-time world champion retaliated with a 1m18.729s lap to top the session. Leclerc was not able to show his hand after being blocked by Russell on his final attempt

Norris' first soft-tyre lap held up for third on the day, narrowly followed by Verstappen, Russell and Isack Hadjar. Racing Bulls continued its promising streak of form with Liam Lawson grabbing seventh ahead of Piastri. Nico Hulkenberg and Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top 10. Championship leader Antonelli only managed 13th after having to abort his qualifying simulation.

Aston Martin's heavily upgraded car was 19th with Fernando Alonso, three seconds behind the leaders and roughly on par with Cadillac, although the Silverstone team likely focused on further dialling its B-spec car rather than chasing ultimate performance. But the squad did suffer a setback when Lance Stroll's rear suspension failed in FP1, with the Canadian missing all of FP2 as a result.

F1 Hungarian GP: FP2 results

All Stats

Cla	Driver	#	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	Tyres	km/h
1	L. Hamilton Ferrari	44	Ferrari	Ferrari	25	1'18.729		S	200.327
2	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16	Ferrari	Ferrari	29	+0.148 1'18.877	0.148	S	199.951
3	L. Norris McLaren	1	McLaren	Mercedes	30	+0.499 1'19.228	0.351	S	199.065
4	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	3	Red Bull	Red Bull	26	+0.692 1'19.421	0.193	S	198.582
5	G. Russell Mercedes	63	Mercedes	Mercedes	29	+0.933 1'19.662	0.241	S	197.981
6	I. Hadjar Red Bull Racing	6	Red Bull	Red Bull	19	+1.071 1'19.800	0.138	S	197.639
7	L. Lawson Racing Bulls	30	RB	Red Bull	29	+1.312 1'20.041	0.241	S	197.044
8	O. Piastri McLaren	81	McLaren	Mercedes	27	+1.372 1'20.101	0.060	S	196.896
9	N. Hulkenberg Audi	27	Audi	Audi	30	+1.396 1'20.125	0.024	S	196.837
10	A. Lindblad Racing Bulls	41	RB	Red Bull	28	+1.524 1'20.253	0.128	S	196.523
11	G. Bortoleto Audi	5	Audi	Audi	26	+1.745 1'20.474	0.221	S	195.983
12	E. Ocon Haas F1 Team	31	Haas	Ferrari	26	+1.828 1'20.557	0.083	S	195.781
13	A. Antonelli Mercedes	12	Mercedes	Mercedes	30	+1.964 1'20.693	0.136	M	195.451
14	P. Gasly Alpine	10	Alpine	Mercedes	24	+2.087 1'20.816	0.123	S	195.154
15	O. Bearman Haas F1 Team	87	Haas	Ferrari	27	+2.221 1'20.950	0.134	S	194.831
16	A. Albon Williams	23	Williams	Mercedes	33	+2.244 1'20.973	0.023	S	194.776
17	C. Sainz Williams	55	Williams	Mercedes	31	+2.697 1'21.426	0.453	S	193.692
18	V. Bottas Cadillac F1 Team	77	Cadillac	Ferrari	30	+2.713 1'21.442	0.016	S	193.654
19	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14	Aston Martin	Honda	24	+2.990 1'21.719	0.277	S	192.997
20	S. Perez Cadillac F1 Team	11	Cadillac	Ferrari	27	+3.063 1'21.792	0.073	S	192.825
21	F. Colapinto Alpine	43	Alpine	Mercedes	11	+3.802 1'22.531	0.739	M	191.099
22	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18	Aston Martin	Honda	0
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