Hamilton leads dominant Ferrari 1-2 in second Hungarian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton bested Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc to top spot in the second practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix despite both drivers having their first flying laps interrupted by red flags.

Both Hamilton and Leclerc had just embarked on laps on fresh soft tires when Franco Colapinto spun his Alpine entering the final corner and rear-ended the barriers, triggering a six-minute suspension to clear the wreckage.

Despite having taken some life from their tires, neither driver was troubled in rocketing to top spot, with Leclerc initially heading Hamilton by 0.037s after their first completed laps. Hamilton, however, had a second attempt on the same set of softs and lowered the benchmark at 1m17.729s, usurping Leclerc by 0.148s.

Ferrari was in a class of its own during the session, with Lando Norris third quickest for McLaren but 0.499s off the pace after being the first among the front-runners to attempt a qualifying-style time around halfway through the hour.

Max Verstappen followed him across the line and logged a time a further 0.193s off the pace after lodging several complaints about his car, including a suspected problem at the rear axle and even an incorrect seating position.

George Russell described his Mercedes as “dreadful” and “out of balance” in the opening minutes of the hour on the dusty and blustery circuit and ended the session 0.933s off the pace in fifth. He fared better than teammate Kimi Antonelli, however, who failed to set a representative time on soft tires.

Antonelli had been halfway around the track on a flying lap when Colapinto crashed, and his follow-up attempt after the resumption was ended when his car slid out of his control at the chicane.

“I keep locking the rears, man. It’s too much,” he radioed on his way back to pit lane before embarking on a race simulation run, leaving him 13th in the order.

Isack Hadjar was sixth and 1.071s off the pace for Red Bull Racing ahead of Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who also had his first lap interrupted by red flags and was forced to make a second attempt after pit lane reopened. The Australian was 1.372s off the pace, more than half of which was lost in the final sector.

Nico Hulkenberg was ninth for Audi ahead of Arvid Lindblad in the second Racing Bulls car to complete the top 10.

Gabriel Bortoleto was 11th ahead of Esteban Ocon and the out-of-position Antonelli.

Pierre Gasly was deeply unhappy with his “extremely bad” Alpine on his way to 14th and 2.087s off the pace, putting him ahead of Oliver Bearman and Williams teammates Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.

Valtteri Bottas was 18th for Cadillac, 2.713s off the pace and 0.277s ahead of Fernando Alonso’s upgraded Aston Martin car. Alonso split Bottas from teammate Perez, who was 0.073s further back in 20th.

The crashed-out Colapinto ended the hour 21st, while Lance Stroll didn’t enter the session owing to extensive repairs required to his car following his suspension failure in FP1.

RESULTS to follow