Hungarian GP: Norris sets FP1 pace as injured Alonso misses out

McLaren picked up where they left off at Spa with a one-two finish in the opening Hungarian Grand Prix practice session.

Lando Norris took top spot from team-mate Oscar Piastri, while Aston Martin were forced into a late driver change with Fernando Alonso carrying a back injury.

Hungarian GP: McLaren lay down early marker

Ahead of the session getting underway, Aston Martin announced that Fernando Alonso would miss FP1 due to a muscular injury in his back, meaning reserve driver Felipe Drugovich took his place.

While this did not count as a rookie season, Paul Aron’s did, as he replaced Nico Hulkenberg at Sauber for the second time.

The pack quickly started putting medium and hard Pirelli tyres through their paces, as McLaren established an early one-two on the former compound, Norris’ 1:19.413 putting him a tenth up on Piastri.

George Russell quickly overcame a “long” and “spongy” brake to upset the McLaren party, laying down a 1:19.111 as the new benchmark. But, there was plenty more pace still to be unlocked.

That was especially true for Pierre Gasly with “no power” in his Alpine, as he was called back to the garage.

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With a quarter of the session gone, Norris was back on top, as Hamilton was left questioning “where is that one second” which he needed to make up to match the McLaren driver’s pace.

“The car doesn’t feel good,” Hamilton declared in a further message, as the gap grew to 1.5 seconds.

While Hamilton was struggling, Williams and Racing Bulls were thriving, Carlos Sainz third and Alex Albon fourth in the Williams FW47s, with Liam Lawson P6 and Isack Hadjar P7 in the Racing Bulls cars, all cars running the hard compound.

Aron was also on the hards, but his session came to an abrupt halt when we was told to “stop the car”, a “systems critical alarm” having flashed up on the Sauber steering wheel. He pulled up in the Turn 13 run-off so marshals could clear him and the stricken C45.

Following a lull in the action, the soft tyres came out to play for the second-half of FP1, Franco Colapinto the first to post a lap which sent him sixth-fastest.

Leclerc delivered a 1:16.7 with the softs bolted on, but Norris obliterated that, a 1:16.0 putting rivals on notice, less than a week on from McLaren’s latest one-two at Spa. Piastri slotted in a tenth-and-a-half behind Norris.

But Leclerc responded on his next attempt, cutting Norris’ lead to two-tenths, the SF-25 with its recent floor and rear-suspension upgrades gelling well with the Monegasque racer.

As the soft tyre runs continued, Lawson found his team-mate Hadjar as an unwanted distraction through the high-speed sweeps, while Hamilton worked his way up to P4 before a major lock-up at Turn 1 saw him return to the garage, and re-join the track on mediums.

Hadjar soon redeemed himself, splitting the Ferraris, the Frenchman sat P4 and continuing to impress.

From there, a wider return to mediums and hards took place to see out FP1, Russell struggling to “turn the car” in those closing minutes, as Norris headed a McLaren one-two from Leclerc.

Check out the full Hungarian Grand Prix FP1 results here.

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