Charles Leclerc edged Lando Norris at the end of a welcome dry second practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The initial hour at the Hungaroring was hit by wet weather, resulting in just 13 of the 20 drivers setting a lap time given the poor conditions.
Thankfully for the F1 field, the situation improved throughout the afternoon, allowing for a clear FP2, topped by Ferrari driver Leclerc with a time of one minute 17.686secs, just 0.015s ahead of McLaren’s Norris.
The MCL60 initially suggested it will not be hamstrung by the tight, twisty nature of this circuit given its performances at the more high-speed Red Bull Ring and Silverstone for the last two outings in Austria and Britain.
For Norris’ team-mate, however, Piastri was confined to the garage for a considerable period after damaging the floor of his car and requiring a change.
The Australian was able to return to the track late on, but finished a lowly 19th with a best lap of 1:19.117s, albeit on the medium-compound tyres, with Mercedes’ George Russell the only driver slower by 0.058s, underlining the mixed-up nature of the field.
Just ahead of Piastri and Russell was Sergio Perez, who arguably faced one of the most crucial practice sessions of his time with Red Bull following his mistake in FP1 and his shocking run of qualifying form that has seen him fail to reach Q3 in the last five grands prix.
Just three minutes into first practice, and on his first hot lap, Perez put the rear-left tyre of his RB19 on the grass on the approach to Turn 5, sending him into a spin that pitched him into a barrier, sparking a red flag in a session that was then hit by the rain.
It was another heavy dent to Perez’s confidence, even though Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has claimed the Mexican has the support of the team.
Despite the time lost, Perez did not head back out on track until 17 minutes into FP2, with Max Verstappen following a few minutes later, with the two-time F1 champion the last to venture out of the garage.
Perez’s opening lap was a 1:19.105s, 0.269s behind the early pacesetter in Williams’ Logan Sargeant, with both on the soft tyres.
Verstappen followed through soon after, and popped in the second-fastest lap at that stage, 0.075s adrift of American Sargeant, albeit with only the Red Bull and Williams duos running the soft tyres in the opening 20 minutes.
Perez later blotted his copybook again, though, when he brutally flat-spotted a front-right soft tyre at one point, rendering it unusable for the remainder of the weekend, adding to the question marks against him at present.
Low-fuel runs were then the order of the day, with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda initially setting the pace before being usurped by Norris with a time of 1:17.701s.
On his first flying lap on the red-striped Pirellis, Ricciardo finished 0.451s adrift of Tsunoda before Leclerc took over at the top of the standings with what proved to be the leading time of the session.
What was clear was that the run programme ran differently than others this year given that low-fuel, soft-tyre outings ordinarily dominate the early proceedings.
But in light of the rain-hit FP1, and with F1 trialling this weekend its new ‘alternative tyre allocation’ format, otherwise known as ‘ATA’, planning by the teams was varied.
For Hungary, and again for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in early September, teams only have 11 sets of tyres per driver, rather than the customary 13, whilst each of the three compounds is mandated per qualifying session, with the hards for Q1, mediums for Q2 and softs for Q3.
It meant that alongside Piastri and Russell on the mediums, there was also the Alfa Romeo duo of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, as well as Lewis Hamilton, who finished 16th quickest as Mercedes clearly focused on long-run pace.
Behind the leaders of Leclerc and Norris, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and team-mate Esteban Ocon were third and fifth quickest, either side of Tsunoda, with Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg sixth, followed by Bottas and Zhou seventh and ninth, sandwiching Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the top 10, 0.496s behind team-mate Leclerc, with Verstappen a surprising 11th, a further tenth of a second down, whilst Ricciardo finished 14th.
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