2nd training in Hungary: Leclerc in the dry before Norris

Each pilot is only allowed four sets of soft tires at the weekend. Two of them plan the top pilots for the qualification. Accordingly, some teams used the softest tires sparingly. Red Bull drove on the soft tires, but the laps of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez didn’t look like qualifying simulations. Mercedes and Alfa-Sauber even completely dispensed with the soft tires. Therefore, at the end of the training day, the balance of power is only a diffuse picture.

The result: Charles Leclerc was 0.015 seconds faster than Lando Norris. Two tenths behind were Pierre Gasly in the Alpine and Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri. Esteban Ocon confirmed the strong Alpine form in fifth place. Nico Hülkenberg ended up sixth, less than four tenths of a second behind, just ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Fernando Alonso, Guanyu Zhou and Carlos Sainz completed the top 10.

World champion Max Verstappen only finished eleventh. The Red Bull driver drove the entire practice session on just one set of tyres. Team-mate Sergio Perez also concentrated more on long runs: the Mexican finished in 18th place. Mercedes used just one set of medium for the entire session. Lewis Hamilton was 16th, George Russell even last. Daniel Ricciardo finished 14th in the AlphaTauri.

The Incidents: Guanyu Zhou complained about Lewis Hamilton early in the session. The Mercedes driver got in his way in turn five, and Zhou had to abort his lap. However, the stewards do not investigate the case any more than they did a scene in the pit lane: Charles Leclerc had to brake in the fast lane because an Alpine mechanic was in the way who was guiding Esteban Ocon out of the garage. Oscar Piastri had to spend a long time in the garage because the mechanics were repairing his underbody.

The weather: After the 1st practice session was still characterized by rain and interruptions, the weather showed its better side in the afternoon. The asphalt was completely dry again at the beginning of the session, and the qualifying sessions for Formula 2 and Formula 3 before that were contested on slicks. Rain is expected to return later in the evening with dry conditions expected on Saturday. With 23 degrees air and 31 degrees asphalt temperature it was comparatively cool.