Leclerc fastest before hitting trouble in opening Hungarian GP practice

Charles Leclerc dominated opening practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix but retired from the session early with an apparent gearbox problem.

Leclerc needed only one lap on softs to fire in the best time of the hour at the Hungaroring, a 1m19.075s, to gap the field by 0.484s in an imperious display for Ferrari, which has started the weekend as favorite for victory at the slow and twisty Hungaroring.

But the Monegasque was only two laps into a long run when he reported “something broke” in his SF26 as he navigated the final sector with around 8m remaining. He limped back to pit lane and came to a halt at the weighbridge, requiring his mechanics to sprint up the pit lane to collect the car.

Max Verstappen was Leclerc’s closest challenger, but the Red Bull Racing driver lost time all three sectors – most of all in the middle split – to end up almost half a second adrift in a car the Dutchman complained was suffering from “horrendous” downshifts and was “jumping like crazy.”

Verstappen will also see the stewards after the session for erratic driving in an incident with Carlos Sainz, in which he felt blocked by the Spaniard but retaliated by appearing to speed ahead of the Williams and then hit the brakes.

Lewis Hamilton was similarly unhappy in the second Ferrari on his way to third and 0.543s off the pace of his teammate. The Briton noted early in the session that “the car feels pretty bad” with a poor ride that was too stiff. After his flying lap on softs, he reported that something was wrong with his upshifts and downshifts.

Isack Hadjar was fourth, 0.922s off the pace and 0.069s ahead of George Russell in the lead Mercedes.

Gabriel Bortoleto was an unexpected sixth for Audi ahead of Mercedes reserve driver Frederik Vesti, who commanded title leader Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes to 1.392s off the pace.

Nico Hulkenberg was eighth for Audi ahead of Racing Bulls teammates Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson to complete the top 10.

Lando Norris led the way for McLaren in 11th and 1.949s off the pace. The reigning Budapest winner was focused on aero evaluation for much of the session, with the team bringing a major upgrade package to the car this weekend.

Norris’s fastest lap came at his second attempt with a set of softs, having lost his first attempt running wide at Turn 11, forcing him to abandon the tour to start again.

Esteban Ocon was 12th ahead of Fernando Alonso in his heavily upgraded Aston Martin car in 13th, 2.475s off the pace. If the Spaniard were to be the same distance adrift of pole in qualifying, it would be comfortably the most competitive the team has been over a single lap all season.

Though the first signs from the updated car were positive, less can be said for teammate Lance Stroll, whose car suffered a suspected rear-left suspension failure as he put the power down exiting Turn 2 just past the halfway mark of the hour. The rear suspension package is part of the package of updates applied this weekend, and the team had previously suggested it would be light on spares this weekend.

Pierre Gasly was 14th ahead of Alex Albon and 15th-placed McLaren development driver Leonardo Fornaroli, substituting for Oscar Piastri.

Ryō Hirakawa was 17th for Haas, where he was standing in for Oliver Bearman, ahead of Cadillac’s Sergio Perez, who was more than 3s off the pace.

Paul Aron was 19th in Franco Colapinto’s Alpine ahead of Cadillac development driver Colton Herta, who was 1.029s slower than Perez in the sister car.

The stopped Stroll was 21st ahead of Sainz, who had his first fast lap blocked by Aron and then lost his second attempt to a big tire-destroying lock-up into the first turn.

Sainz will see the stewards for two cases of erratic driving – the first for blocking Verstappen, for which he later revealed was due to his radio not working and thus him not hearing warnings from his engineer, and the second for remonstrating with his car with Aron after having a fast lap blocked. The Spaniard was subsequently shown a black and white flag for unsportsmanlike conduct.

RESULTS