Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz headed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during opening practice for Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Sainz set a time of 1:18.750s during the one-hour session in hot and sunny conditions at the Hungaroring to finish 0.130s clear of Verstappen.
Verstappen enters the weekend – the final event before the summer break – 63 points clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc, who crashed out of Sunday’s French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, was third overall, within three-tenths of a second of his team-mate.
McLaren driver Lando Norris was an eye-catching fourth, half a second off the pace, with George Russell the lead Mercedes representative in fifth spot.
Russell’s best time left him eight-tenths off Sainz while seventh-placed Hamilton was a further tenth behind his team-mate.
They were split by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who had a promising lap time scuppered when he encountered traffic in the final sector.
Daniel Ricciardo was eighth for McLaren while Alpine pair Esteban Ocon – last year’s shock race winner – and Fernando Alonso, on the occasion of his 41st birthday, rounding out the top 10.
Sebastian Vettel was 11th overall in the first session since announcing his retirement at the end of the year, while Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll recovered from a heavy kerb strike to take 12th.
AlphaTauri duo Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda were next up as they continued to evaluate the upgrade package introduced in France, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu and Williams’ Alex Albon.
Haas introduced its upgrade package, heavily inspired by Ferrari’s concept, for Kevin Magnussen’s car and he placed 17th, in front of team-mate Mick Schumacher.
Robert Kubica had his third practice outing of the season with Alfa Romeo, classifying 19th in place of Valtteri Bottas, leaving Nicholas Latifi at the back for Williams.
Second practice is scheduled to begin at 17:00 local time
[motorsport_result id='89052']
Discussion about this post