FP1: Sainz wins the first Ferrari v Max tussle in Hungary

Michelle Foster
Carlos Sainz sitting in his car, visor up. France July 2022

Carlos Sainz won the early Ferrari versus Max Verstappen battle at the Hungaroring as Aston Martin courted controversy and Haas embraced their Ferrari-ness.

Sebastian Vettel, fresh from his retirement announcement, and his team-mate Lance Stroll were the first out on track as they trialled Aston Martin’s controversial new rear wing with its armchair end plate – more drag, but more downforce.

Birthday boy Fernando Alonso got a close up look at the AMR22’s rear wing, the Spaniard having to run wide after closing too quickly on the back of Stroll’s car.

Aston Martin wasn’t the only team to head out with new parts, Kevin Magnussen debuting Haas’ heavily revised VF-22 with its Ferrari-style sidepods. In fact all the teams except Ferrari and Williams had updates bolted onto their cars.

That didn’t stop Ferrari from taking the fight to Red Bull.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz swapped P1 times with Max Verstappen, the reigning World Champ up after 10 minutes before Leclerc, having asked Ferrari to find him a “gap as it is a mess” in the traffic, hitting the front with a 1:20.2.

He upped that to a 1:19.4, putting 0.25s between himself and Verstappen at the halfway point.

Bolting on a fresh set of softs, Verstappen leapfrogged both Ferrari drivers while the Scuderia team-mate struggled to improve their times. Sainz ultimately went for two cool down laps before laying down a 1:18.750 to finish P1 by 0.13s ahead of Verstappen. Leclerc was third.

Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren, putting in a late soft tyre run to work his way up the order. George Russell also entered the fray as he swapped his hard tyres for a set of the soft Pirellis, the Briton running as high as P2 before falling to fifth as others completed their late-session soft tyres runs.

His session, though, wasn’t without problems as early in the session he asked Mercedes to “check you’re happy with the PU. A little bit of a strange noise coming from the turbo as I lift off”.

Mercedes did not detect a problem and the driver continued lapping. However, late in the session he was told to “lift and coast, we need to cool the PU”.

The sneezing Sergio Perez was sixth ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon. Last year’s Hungarian GP race winner edged his team-mate Alonso by 0.3s.

As for Aston Martin, Vettel was P11 and 1.6s down while Stroll was right behind his team-mate, 0.04s back.

Magnussen in the revised Haas and his team-mate Mick Schumacher also didn’t have much separating them, a tenth in the Dane’s favour. They, however, were 17th and 18th.

Alfa Romeo test driver Robert Kubica was 19th to Nicholas Latifi’s P20.

The drivers can expect very different conditions on Saturday with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast. Sunday is also expected to be a lot cooler than Friday’s 50′ track temperature.

Times

1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:18.750 24 laps (soft)
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 0.130s 23 laps (soft)
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.289s 25 laps (soft)
4 Lando Norris McLaren 0.549s 19 laps (soft)
5 George Russell Mercedes 0.856s 26 laps (soft)
6 Sergio Perez Red Bull 0.872s 23 laps (soft)
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.960s 24 laps (soft)
8 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 1.091s 26 laps (soft)
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1.598s 29 laps (soft)
10 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1.627s 25 laps (soft)
11 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1.633s 24 laps (soft)
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1.664s 24 laps (soft)
13 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 1.706s 27 laps (soft)
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1.945s 26 laps (soft)
15 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo Racing 2.060s 21 laps (soft)
16 Alex Albon Williams 2.084s 26 laps (soft)
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 2.171s 22 laps (soft)
18 Mick Schumacher Haas 2.277s 24 laps (soft)
19 Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo Racing 2.429s 18 laps (soft)
20 Nicholas Latifi Williams 2.663s 25 laps (soft)

 

Looking ahead to the Hungarian Grand Prix

The Hungarian Grand Prix is the final race before Formula 1's summer break.

 

Carlos Sainz Ferrari Max Verstappen

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