Leading the activity for about 50 minutes, Charles Leclerc ended up as the fastest driver in TL2 at the Hungaroring. Times were very close for the teams
If the weather forecast pointed to the possibility of rain in the second free practice session for the Hungarian GP, held earlier this afternoon (29), the reality was that it was not even close. With a completely dry track, Hugaroring offered another demonstration that there is extreme parity among the teams. But who got the better of Ferrari again: Charles Leclerc was the fastest and ended the day with morale high.
The Monegasque started leading the practice as soon as he set his first fast lap, and was beaten almost at the halfway mark thanks to Lando Norris' first run on soft tires. When he put on the fastest tires, however, he immediately made 1min18s445 and retook the lead. Absolute control, therefore.
It turned out to be a less eventful practice than imagined in terms of laps posted. After a TL1 that changed hands all the time during the 60 minutes, this time it was different. With 25 minutes or so on the clock, the fast laps ceased. Norris stayed right in second, followed by Carlos Sainz. Max Verstappen was 0s283 slower than Leclerc, but finished fourth. All very tight.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and IN REAL TIME all the activities of the Hungarian GP weekend. On Saturday, TL3 is scheduled for 8am (GMT-3), while qualifying starts at 11am.
Check out how TL2 went:
It is true that the ambient temperature was even higher than in TL1, at 33°C, but the track was slightly below 50°C for the second free practice of the Formula 1 weekend in Magyoród, home of the Hungaroring circuit in the Budapest metropolitan area.
As in the first practice, the two Aston Martin cars took the track before any other cars when the green flag was raised. The team has a new rear wing for the weekend and used Friday to do several tests with it.
In the same way that happened in TL1, the track filled up quickly. And soon there was a Ferrari in front: Charles Leclerc, with 1min18s911 and on medium tires. Carlos Sainz placed right behind, but 0s6 slower. If Sainz was doing well on soft tires, he looked much worse on medium ones.
The vast majority of teams started the day on medium tires. Only Williams tested the soft tires, while McLaren and Esteban Ocon started on the hard ones. The range of rubber offered by Pirelli for the weekend is, as it had also been in France, intermediate: C2, C3 and C4.
Mick Schumacher almost lost control of the car at the chicane and had to slide the car to avoid any more serious issues. In the aftermath, Mercedes warned Lewis Hamilton that his gap to the leader, Leclerc, was 1s9. The reaction was one of a sigh.
Red Bull appeared with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez within the same second of Leclerc, something no one else had after 15 minutes, but Max was 0s7 slower. Czech, worse, 0s9. Quite considerable at that point. It was Fernando Alonso who appeared with the fifth time.
Sebastian Vettel, the retiree from the end of the year with the updated car at Aston Martin, was the one who appeared in the top five. Alexander Albon went the other way, losing the rear end of his car at the entrance to turn one and spinning off the track. He still managed to restart the car and drive away anyway.
Then, after 25 minutes of practice, the soft tires started to show. Lando Norris took advantage of this and moved into the lead with a lap of 1min18s662. It would last until Leclerc came back, now also on soft tires, to make 1min18s445.
With 30 minutes gone, Leclerc was still in the lead and had Norris in second place. Alonso, Vettel, Sainz, Pérez, Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton, Guanyu Zhou, and Esteban Ocon completed the top-10.
After a heavy sequence of fast laps, the qualifying simulations slowed down almost entirely. Verstappen improved his time to fourth, but the track quietened down. Russell slipped out at turn one, but nothing serious either. The race simulations took over.
Owner of the second fastest time and well positioned with McLaren for the weekend, Norris received a call after attacking the zebra in one of the corners. "We have to keep an eye on the zebras to protect that floorboard, right? Be careful," the engineer said over the radio.
Ferrari also gave an order to one of its drivers, leader Leclerc, with about 15 minutes to go. The #16 car's touch seemed too low in fourth gear, so the team wanted a closer look and called the Monegasque into the pits. Less than four minutes later, he was back on track.
Verstappen and Hamilton were lamenting other issues. The championship leader said that the track irregularities were a "joke," while Hamilton warned Mercedes that the car was too unstable.