Carlos Sainz Jnr put Ferrari on top of the times in a very hot opening practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen.
With ambient temperatures over 30C and track temperatures reaching 60C, Sainz set the quickest time of the first hour of running at the Hungaroring with a 1’18.713, just under three tenths of a second faster than championship leader Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc was third fastest in the second Ferrari, with George Russell fourth in the Mercedes.
With the vast majority of teams bringing upgrades to Hungary for this weekend, the first practice session was focused on gaining data in the hot conditions. Multiple teams split their configurations for back-to-back analysis, with Verstappen running the revised RB20 while team mate Sergio Perez kept the Silverstone-spec parts on his car. Fernando Alonso received new parts on his Aston Martin while Lance Stroll admitted to struggling with the balance of his car with older parts.
Several drivers had problems with parts of their cars coming loose during the session. Zhou Guanyu lost some cooling louvres from the side of his extensively updated Sauber and was brought in to have them fixed. He ended up fifth fastest at the end of the session. Oscar Piastri was held up from running early in the session with McLaren working on the internals of his car, however he was able to take to the track after a minor delay and complete a full programme, ending the hour in seventh just behind team mate Lando Norris.
George Russell complained of traffic at various points in the session. He encountered Yuki Tsunoda who almost drove into him as the Mercedes driver looked to pass at the exit of turn one. Later Esteban Ocon refused to yield for Russell at the exit of turn 11.
Nico Hulkenberg sat out the session to allow Oliver Bearman to participate in his Haas. The 2025 Haas driver was slowest of all in the session, just under a tenth of a second slower than team mate Kevin Magnussen.
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2024 Hungarian Grand Prix first practice result
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2024 Hungarian Grand Prix
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