Lando Norris led a McLaren one-two in first practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Bristolian set a 16.052 to put himself just under two hundredths faster than teammate Oscar Piastri. Norris put himself ahead of his teammate, who was two tenths faster than the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
Norris goes into the final race before the summer break sixteen points ahead of his teammate, with the feeling that this season’s championship will be an exclusive fight between the two McLaren drivers. Meanwhile, Leclerc put his Ferrari third two tenths off as he went four tenths faster than Isack Hadjar the Racing Bulls driver, splitting the Ferrari’s as the Frenchman went half a tenth ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Hadjar continued to impress in his debut season, while his hero Hamilton suffered with a braking issue which resulted in two big lock-ups and the seven-time champion almost seven tenths off Norris. Ollie Bearman continued Haas’s form this season going sixth a tenth and a half off Hamilton, as he went two thousandths faster than the Mercedes duo, with Kimi Antonelli half a tenth ahead of George Russell.
Mercedes has reverted to an older rear suspension set-up for this weekend in an attempt to isolate where their car has lost performance in the last few races. The belief is that the newer suspension design, which featured a higher degree of anti-lift in an attempt to keep the aerodynamic platform more stable, might have induced other issues into the car’s behaviour on corner entry.
Max Verstappen put his Red Bull ninth a hundredth and a half behind Russell, going just under two hundredths faster than Lance Stroll to complete the top ten. Verstappen confirmed to the media that he will stay with Red Bull for 2026. Red Bull have brought a new front wing to Budapest, but it did not make an immediate difference to their performance, with Verstappen nearly nine-tenths off the pace.
Alex Albon put his Williams eleventh as he missed out on the top ten by just under four hundredths, as he went two hundredths ahead of former teammates Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly who were separated by over a tenth.
Laim Lawson put his Racing Bull a hundredth ahead of Carlos Sainz, as the Williams went seven hundredths faster than Aston Martin reserve Felipe Drugovich. The Brazilian, standing in for Fernando Alonso who has a back injury but should be back for FP2, was over a tenth faster than Yuki Tsunoda.
Franco Colapinto was just under two-tenths faster than the Sauber’s with Gabriel Bortoletto two seconds ahead of reserve driver Paul Aron.
The Estonian took over Nico Hulkenberg’s car as the team continues to fulfil the mandatory requirement to run a rookie in practice at least twice in each of their cars. But his session was cut short because of a technical issue halfway through the session, leading to him stopping at Turn Thirteen.
