Lando Norris of McLaren triumphed over Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen to win the second free practice session on Friday in sweltering heat ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.
In a fiercely contested session, the 24-year-old British driver, who trails the three-time champion by 84 points in the drivers’ championship race, set a personal best time of one minute and 17.788 seconds, besting his friend and rival by 0.243 seconds.
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari finished third, just a tenth behind, followed by George Russell of Mercedes, an improving Sergio Perez of the second Red Bull, and Kevin Magnussen of Haas, who will be departing the team at the end of the season.
In the intense heat of 32°C in the air and 60°C on the track, Nico Hulkenberg led the way at the start of the session, setting the first lap time on medium tires. Perez then passed him with a time of 1:18.568, finally finding some speed. Verstappen complained that his brakes were “not working, they’re not biting” during his first run. After finishing fifth, he trailed his Red Bull teammate, who secured second place.
Ferrari’s fortunes took a turn for the worse at Turn Four when Charles Leclerc lost control, went over the curbs, and struck the barriers after a strong first session. He reported, “I touched the wall,” causing damage to both the advertising hoardings and his car.
The session was red-flagged for fourteen minutes before it resumed.
Mercedes had a difficult day as well due to technical issues caused by partner Crowdstrike’s worldwide IT outage, which left them using blank pit-wall screens during opening practice.
During the restart, the front-runners all switched to soft tires for some qualifying simulation runs, with Russell and Lewis Hamilton going first. Russell topped Hamilton by 0.069 seconds with a time of 1:18.294; Norris followed with his impressive 1:17.788, four tenths faster than Sainz, who had led Ferrari in the first session until Verstappen finished in second.
Following this flurry of activity, Oscar Piastri returned to McLaren for his second long absence of the day, while most drivers switched back to medium tires for race preparation.
During this time, Perez demonstrated that he was back to his best in race trim, making it crucial for him to regain some pure pace in qualifying today.
Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, Alex Albon of Williams, and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin all finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion who is aiming for a record-breaking ninth victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Only Red Bull and Mercedes had both drivers in the top ten, indicating how close the field has become and how tight a race is expected on Sunday, with eight different teams represented in the top ten.
Red Bull team manager Christian Horner remarked, “I believe this was Sergio’s best Friday performance since China.”
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