Norris fastest in red-flagged FP2 over Verstappen, Sainz

Lando Norris put his McLaren on top of Formula 1’s FP2 times at the Hungarian Grand Prix, 0.243 seconds clear of Max Verstappen.

After FP1’s scorching track temperatures, which neared 60C, the temperatures upon the Hungaroring circuit had started to fall below 50C for the start of FP2, ensuring the tyres had a marginally easier time of it.

Sergio Perez had moved to the top of the order with a 1m18.568s amid the early runs on mediums, which remained the fastest lap throughout the session’s opening 15 minutes.

At this stage, the session was interrupted by Charles Leclerc’s crash on the exit of Turn 4; the Ferrari driver took too much kerb coming out of the uphill left-hander, pitching his car into a heavy spin into the opposite wall.

This produced a lengthy stoppage to fix the Armco barrier dented by Leclerc’s Ferrari, taking just over 15 minutes to complete the necessary repairs before the session could resume.

Once the green flag was shown once more, the usual soft tyre runs began to take place; George Russell posted a 1m18.294s to dispatch Perez’s earlier benchmark, kicking off the post-pause shuffle in the order.

Norris then put half a second on his countryman, moving to the top with a 1m17.788s to set a considerable benchmark for the other drivers to aim for.

FP1 headliner Carlos Sainz closed Norris’ advantage over second after setting a 1m18.185s, which cut the gap to under 0.4s, while Max Verstappen improved further with a 1m18.031s. However, Norris’ lap in the 1m17s could not be eclipsed prior to the longer runs.

Perez had set a follow-up time good enough for fourth behind Sainz and Verstappen, albeit only 0.3s quicker than his medium tyre lap – a much smaller improvement compared to the tyre deltas for everyone else.

Russell’s initial leading soft-tyre lap was ultimately fifth best, while Kevin Magnussen recovered from a difficult FP1 session to slot into sixth place on the timing boards, 0.021s shy of Russell’s effort.

Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo were both within six tenths of Norris’ effort in seventh and eighth, while Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso completed the top 10, ahead of the upgraded Sauber of Valtteri Bottas and Williams’ Logan Sargeant.

Oscar Piastri struggled to set a representative time and only managed 13th, having spent much of the final half of the session in the garage. Zhou Guanyu almost created a carbon copy of Leclerc’s crash, but narrowly avoided the wall – and Perez, who was driving…