Daniel Ricciardo is optimistic that he can fight for pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix after leading the way during both practice sessions on Friday.
Ricciardo headed the pack in Friday morning’s opening session on Soft tyres, before improving in the afternoon on Supersofts, coming close to the all-time record at the Hungaroring.
Ricciardo’s time of 1:18.455 was 0.183s quicker than Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, as less than half a second covered the leading six drivers, and the Australian is hopeful of carrying his pace through to Saturday.
“If we replicate today then yes,” Ricciardo said when asked if he had the pace to fight for pole.
![Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen [pictured with Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore] is stern in his belief Mercedes has acted correctly](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Alpine-Steve-Nielsen-Flavio-Briatore-120x86.webp)
“Today was good, it was certainly a positive day, to replicate the same pace as this morning in the afternoon [was] positive.
“You don’t know what Ferrari and Mercedes will come up with, it looks like Ferrari found a bit more pace this afternoon but we’re still ahead, we’ll see tomorrow, but it’s definitely positive.”
Ricciardo’s Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen finished down in sixth, almost half a second adrift, and pointed to the disrupted nature of the session as an influencing factor in his deficit.
“From my side in the beginning it was a bit difficult, I was struggling with the balance," he said.
“We started to sort out the balance a bit better, and we changed quite a lot of things on the car.
“At the end of second practice it was good, but I couldn't finish my lap. We had red flags, yellow flags, and a red flag again.”
![Alpine Managing Director Steve Nielsen [pictured with Executive Advisor Flavio Briatore] is stern in his belief Mercedes has acted correctly](https://www.motorsportweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Alpine-Steve-Nielsen-Flavio-Briatore-350x250.webp)
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