Hungary FP2: Norris leads Verstappen as Leclerc spins out
Lando Norris took the top spot in second practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday, the McLaren finishing 0.243s ahead of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen with Carlos Sainz third for Ferrari at the Hungaroring on Friday.
Under-pressure Sergio Perez had a good day to finish fourth in the second Red Bull ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell, with Kevin Magnussen sixth the day after it was confirmed he is leaving Haas at the end of the year.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc spun out early in the session to bring out the first red flag of the day, damage to the SF-24 forcing a premature end to his session.
Although second practice didn't get underway until 5pm local time, that did nothing to take the edge off the searingly hot conditions at the Hungaroring courtesy of a deep heatwave nestling over the whole of central Europe. The form book looked wide open this weekend with many teams bringing extensive upgrades, not least Red Bull and Aston Martin in pursuit of rediscovering recent lost pace.
First out on track was Nico Hulkenberg, having sat out the first session to allow Ollie Bearman some time in the car. He soon had company out on track with Sergio Perez going top with a time of 1:18.568s ahead of George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc.
Less happy with the early state of things was Max Verstappen, complaining that the brakes on the Red Bull weren't biting as he went only fifth fastest, quickly demoted to sixth by FP1 pace setter Carlos Sainz. McLaren had opted for a low key start with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri the only drivers to be ushered out on the hard compound while everyone else was straight on to mediums.
A subsequent run for Verstappen saw the championship leader move up to second behind his team mate, but he was still 0.156s short of matching the Mexican. Before anyone could further try to oust Perez from the top, the red flags were out after Leclerc ran wide and lost the back of the Ferrari on the kerbs exiting turn 4. He had spun and put the back of Ferrari into the wall at turn 5 to end his day early.
The clock kept ticking while marshals removed the SF-24 and checked the barriers, which took almost a quarter of an hour. When the session resumed there were still 28 minutes remaining on the clock as cars headed back out on track, by which point it was time to switch to softs for qualifying runs with Russell taking point, followed by Hamilton and Hulkenberg.
The two Mercedes drivers moved to the top, but Norris then went half a second quicker than Russell to set a new benchmark of 1:17.788s. There was a scary moment for Perez when Zhou Guanyu spun in the Sauber coming out of turn 4 just as Leclerc had done. He came perilously close to collecting the Red Bull as he shot off into the run-off area. Over the team radio, Zhou blamed the distraction of the slow-moving Perez, and the dirty air thrown up by the RB20.
Norris continued to sit atop the timesheets ahead of improved laps from Verstappen, Sainz and Perez with Russell now fifth ahead of Kevin Magnussen who had pipped Hamilton. Job done, Norris moved back to the hard tyres for the remaining quarter of an hour, but Piastri was held up in the garage with the team working on a floor issue. The MCL38 had already lost time in FP1 with a water pressure problem.
It had proved a good day for Williams with Alex Albon finishing ninth just ahead of Fernando Alonso. The two-time champion's team mate Lance Stroll was only 17th at the chequered flag, indicating mixed fortunes for Aston Martin's box of updates so far.
Leclerc was eighteenth following his early exit from the session, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda after the RB team undertook a front suspension change on his car to address something that they had not been happy with in FP1. Asked about the problem, team principal Laurent Mekies wryly noted that "We are trying not to make it too public!"
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