Charles Leclerc went fastest in FP2 for the Hungarian Grand Prix, but McLaren showed a strong turn of pace as Lando Norris came in behind the Ferrari driver.
The top five was rounded out by Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen and the sister McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo, with the Woking-based team likely to be encouraged by a fast Friday showing.
Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel showed solid one-lap pace as they ranked sixth and seventh, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez only managing P9.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate George Russell both struggled in qualifying trim, with Hamilton unable to make it into the top 10 and Russell only managing P8.
After Sainz took top spot in FP1, second practice would see perhaps more representative lap times as qualifying simulations would come into the equation, with the Hungaroring rubbering in and the teams turning their engines up a bit.
Medium tyres were the preferred compound in the early stages as the late-afternoon sun shone over Budapest, though the track temperature still hovered around a warm 50°C.
Leclerc set the early pace on a 1:18.911, comfortably ahead of his Ferrari team-mate in P2 after their initial flying runs.
Hamilton cut an exasperated figure on team radio after his first fast lap though, with a frustrated “1.9 (seconds) to the same tyre?” being said in response to hearing his gap to Leclerc at the top.
Hamilton runs wide at Turn 4
📻 “Car’s unstable” he tells the team before returning to the pits #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ga9LrTsDOK
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 29, 2022
But it would not be long before the drivers pitted for soft tyres, which started the drivers’ qualifying simulations. Alex Albon was the first to start, but his bouncing Williams sent itself into a spin while braking for Turn 1.
He was able to get going again eventually, but his flat-spotted tyres were no longer of use to him.
Norris became the first driver to jump above Leclerc on soft tyres, with his 1:18.662 then quickly passed by Leclerc once again, who went two tenths faster than the McLaren driver.
Sebastian Vettel moved himself into the top five on his first soft-tyre run, with the new Aston Martin rear wing endplates having raised eyebrows in the paddock on Friday, eventually ranking P7.
But Ricciardo moved in behind Norris in the timings to make it a McLaren two-three on the leaderboard at that point, their FP2 performance underlining the potential they showed in first practice, with signs that they could be…
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