FP2: Leclerc demonstrates Ferrari's pace at the Hungaroring to top second practice

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc posted an eye-catching lap time of 1m18.445s to top the second practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix with McLaren's Lando Norris taking a surprising second place. F1Technical's Balázs Szabó reports on Free Practice 2 from the Hungaroring paddock.

The opening part of the second practice started differently compared to the opening session as the majority of the drivers rolled out on Pirelli’s medium compound. Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc was incredibly fast out of the box, dipping below the 1m19s mark on the yellow-banded compound.

When drivers changed to the soft compound for their qualifying simulation, the Monegasque recorded a time of 1m18.445s to put himself on the top of Free Practice 2. Interestingly, the five-time race winner was unable to find such an improvement as the majority of his rivals, but it was still enough to beat the efforts of McLaren’s Lando Norris, who delivered a surprising result, going only two tenths of a second slower than the absolute benchmark.

Ferrari’s Spanish driver Carlos Sainz took third, edging reigning world champion Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

The close battle between Alpine, Aston Martin continued with Mercedes and Alfa Romeo joining the fray. Fernando Alonso claimed P6 ahead of Sebastian Vettel while Mercedes struggled for pace with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ending the session down in P8 and P11 respectively.

AlphaTauri delivered a promising performance in the opening session, but they were unable to match the pace of the leading midfield teams. Pierre Gasly took 15th while his team mate Yuki Tsunoda finished down in the second-to-last position.

It has been an important day for Haas as they evaluated their brand-new package on Kevin Magnussen’s car. However, the Dane was only able to set the 16th fastest time followed by his team mate Mick Schumacher.

For the Williams squad, it has been an unusual session as Nicholas Latifi was the faster driver with the Canadian taking 18th and Albon ending the session down in the last position.