Hamilton and Leclerc leave rivals chasing in Ferrari Hungarian GP statement

Lewis Hamilton completed the Friday double for Ferrari as he replaced Charles Leclerc at the top of the timesheet, with the Scuderia locking out the top two.

Leclerc set the pace in FP1 by almost half a second, but it was Hamilton who was on top in the day’s second session by 0.148s ahead of Leclerc. Lando Norris was third, a further three-tenths off the pace.

Charles Leclerc leads Ferrari one-two in Hungarian GP FP2

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With the track more representative of what the drivers will experience in qualifying and the race, they were quickly into their FP2 programmes.

The Ferrari teammates set the early pace with Lewis Hamilton into the 1:19s with a 1:19.6, putting him 0.4s clear of Charles Leclerc. Leclerc had set the pace in the day’s earlier session by half a second ahead of Hamilton.

Behind them, several drivers were struggling with the balance of their cars.

Pierre Gasly was having problems in the Alpine, reporting that “something feels wrong on the car.” And then he moved up to 13th place.

George Russell also complained about his Mercedes, telling the team that “it feels dreadful, it’s like the car is so out of balance.”

Isack Hadjar had a big lock-up and went off the circuit at Turn 1. Fernando Alonso also had a moment holding onto his car.

“OMG, I almost spun twice on braking. What the hell is going on?” was Kimi Antonelli’s complaint.

Alex Albon also added his name to the list of drivers getting it wrong.

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Leclerc in second place closed the gap on Hamilton to 0.135s, but then locked up and ran wide into T12, forcing him to abort his latest push lap.

Lando Norris and Max Verstappen replaced the Ferrari teammates at the top of the timesheet. Norris moved into P1 with a 1:19.2, with Verstappen two-tenths down. The Red Bull driver complained that he was “not sitting in the car, it’s terrible.”

The Ferraris then emerged for another run, swapping the medium tyres for softs…

Red flag!

Franco Colapinto went spinning at the final corner and rear-ended the barrier. “I’m okay,” he told the team.

Antonelli led the field out when the session resumed, the Italian looking to do his soft tyre run. But having already used the tyres before aborting his lap for the red flag, he wasn’t able to improve his time.

The Ferrari teammates were also on tyres that had already done a lap. Leclerc went P1 with a 1:18.8, 0.037s faster than Hamilton.

“I think I hit debris on my front wing,” reported Verstappen, before asking Red Bull to have a look.

Hamilton leapfrogged Leclerc to set the pace with a 1:18.729, the Briton 0.148s ahead with Norris almost half a second off the pace.

The drivers focused on race pace in the final 10 minutes with Arvid Lindblad and Gabriel Bortoleto racing one another.

The session ended with Hamiton leading a Ferrari 1-2 ahead of Norris and Verstappen. Championship leader Antonelli was P13 but didn’t set a time on the soft tyres.

Fernando Alonso in the upgraded Aston Martin was 19th, 2.99s down, and Lance Stroll never got out of the garage to set a time.

Hungarian GP: FP2 times

1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:18.729
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:18.877
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:19.228
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:19.421
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:19.662
6 Isack Hadjar Red Bull 1:19.800
7 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls 1:20.041
8 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:20.101
9 Nico Hulkenberg Audi 1:20.125
10 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls 1:20.253
11 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi 1:20.474
12 Esteban Ocon Haas 1:20.557
13 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:20.693
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:20.816
15 Oliver Bearman Haas 1:20.950
16 Alex Albon Williams 1:20.973
17 Carlos Sainz Williams 1:21.426
18 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac 1:21.442
19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:21.719
20 Sergio Perez Cadillac 1:21.792
21 Franco Colapinto Alpine 1:22.531
22 Lance Stroll Aston Martin no time

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