Leclerc tops Hungarian FP1 despite late issue

The Ferrari driver set a 1m19.075s to finish 0.484s clear of Max Verstappen, with Lewis Hamilton another 0.059s behind in third.

Leclerc established the benchmark shortly before the halfway point and remained unbeaten, but reported that something had broken on his SF-26 with seven minutes remaining.

The Monegasque crawled back towards the pits before stopping at the end of the pit lane, where marshals helped return his car to the Ferrari garage.

Lance Stroll also failed to complete the session after an apparent rear suspension failure sent the upgraded Aston Martin spinning shortly after the halfway mark.

The Canadian lost control as he exited Turn 2 and stopped beyond Turn 3 with one of his rear wheels visibly out of alignment, prompting the only red flag of the session.

Stroll avoided contact with the barriers, but Aston Martin faces work to determine the cause of the failure before second practice.

Hamilton completed an encouraging overall result for Ferrari by finishing third despite struggling with the handling and gearshifts of his car.

Isack Hadjar placed fourth for Red Bull ahead of George Russell, with the leading five the only drivers to finish within one second of Leclerc.

Conditions were warm and mostly sunny when the session began, with several teams using the opening hour to evaluate aerodynamic updates.

McLaren tested its version of the rear wing concept already used by Ferrari and Red Bull, while Ferrari compared different rear wing and straight-line mode configurations across its two cars.

Five regular drivers also stepped aside for rookie appearances, with Leonardo Fornaroli replacing Oscar Piastri at McLaren and Frederik Vesti taking over Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes.

Paul Aron drove Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, Ryo Hirakawa replaced Oliver Bearman at Haas and Colton Herta took the place of Valtteri Bottas at Cadillac.

Hirakawa was the first driver onto the circuit, although Leclerc quickly established the early pace with a 1m22.705s.

Liam Lawson moved into second with the updated Racing Bulls, while Stroll initially placed third on the hard compound ahead of Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso.

Russell briefly moved to the front with a 1m22.056s before Leclerc responded with a 1m20.884s.

Hamilton appeared set to challenge his teammate after producing the fastest opening two sectors, but suffered a major slide through the final corner and ran onto the dusty outside section of the circuit.

Verstappen then completed a clean lap in 1m20.788s to take over at the top despite reporting poor downshifts and front-axle bouncing.

The Red Bull driver also encountered Carlos Sainz moving slowly on the racing line, with the Williams driver later explaining that his radio was not working because of a disconnected cable.

Leclerc reclaimed first place with a 1m20.287s as Hamilton climbed into second, although the seven-time world champion remained unhappy with the balance of his Ferrari, reporting that the car felt bad and believed excessive roll stiffness was contributing to his difficulties.

Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg featured inside the leading positions during the opening half of the session, while Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto also spent time in the top 10.

The order changed rapidly once the leading drivers switched to soft tyres, with Russell initially lowering the benchmark to 1m20.066s.

Verstappen immediately responded with a 1m19.559s before Leclerc produced the decisive lap of 1m19.075s, while Lando Norris abandoned his first soft-tyre attempt after running wide at Turn 11 and could manage only 11th by the end of the session.

Stroll’s failure brought out the red flag shortly after Leclerc moved to the front, leaving several drivers without representative qualifying simulations.

Running resumed with around 14 minutes remaining, allowing Vesti to climb into seventh with a 1m20.467s.

The Dane finished 0.401s behind Mercedes teammate Russell and emerged as the fastest of the five rookies taking part.

Alonso also improved on soft tyres but could manage only 13th, while Fornaroli locked his front tyres heavily into Turn 1 during his first attempt.

Sainz abandoned one lap after encountering Aron in the middle sector before locking up and running into the escape road on his next attempt.

The Williams driver struck a bump under braking, unsettling the car and contributing to another difficult lap as he remained at the bottom of the order.

Leclerc’s late problem then ended his running, although nobody was able to threaten his benchmark during the closing minutes.

Bortoleto delivered an encouraging result for Audi by finishing sixth with a 1m20.360s, placing him almost three tenths ahead of teammate Hulkenberg in eighth.

Vesti separated the Audi drivers in seventh, while Lindblad finished ninth in the second Red Bull.

Lawson completed the top 10, ending the session 0.106s behind Lindblad and almost eight tenths away from Hadjar.

Esteban Ocon finished 12th behind Norris, followed by Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, while Fornaroli finished 16th in the second McLaren, ahead of Hirakawa, Sergio Perez, Aron and Herta.

Stroll was classified 21st after his apparent suspension failure, while Sainz completed the order following his radio problem and repeated interruptions.

Second practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix gets underway at 5pm local time (1am AEST).

Results: Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, Free Practice 1