In a sweltering hot Hungaroring, with track temperatures in excess of 58°C, the drivers and teams got to work in the first practice session for the 2024 Hungarian GP.
Oliver Bearman took the wheel of one of the Haas cars in place of Nico Hulkenberg, to make his third FP1 appearance of the season.
Another very notable change, in the form of car upgrades, came from Red Bull. The team upgraded the RB20 in a very visible way, removing the high-shoulder cooling lines at the engine cover in order to maximise downforce on high-load circuits like Budapest.
Winners of the last two races, Mercedes had to face a bit of extra work on the technical side ahead of FP1, after an IT outage from team partner and cybersecurity partner CrowdStrike affected worldwide companies and computers.
Kevin Magnussen, who was announced to leave the Haas team at the end of the year yesterday, reported over the radio that the brakes on his VF-24 felt “terrible”, but noted his seat was “nice”.
The heat continued to cause some reliability gremlins early on, with Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu reporting bodywork “coming off” his sidepods down the straights.
After 20 minutes of running, Max Verstappen was the only driver to run the soft tyres, which propelled him to the top with a 1:19?831, a quarter of a second clear of George Russell’s Mercedes in P2 on the medium tyres. Lando Norris was P3 over four-and-a-half tenths back from the Dutchman, ahead of an impressive Valtteri Bottas in P4.
One notable absence from the top 10 was Sergio Perez, as the Red Bull driver went out on the circuit with huge aero rakes on his RB20 as the team did a back-to-back with its old spec, as Verstappen ran the new upgrade.
Russell had a somewhat scary moment heading to turn two, as he had to take to the grass to avoid contact with VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who “wasn’t looking his mirror” as he reported over the radio.
Lance Stroll reported his AMR24 was “quite shocking to drive”, which would be disappointing for the Silverstone squad given they have brought a massive upgrade package to this circuit.
Ferrari is another team to have brought some upgrades to Budapest, with the aim of fixing some of the bouncing issues it has been fighting since the Spanish GP. Carlos Sainz put in a good lap approaching the halfway mark of the session, to go P3 on the hard tyres, just over 0.25s behind Verstappen’s early soft tyre lap.
Alex Albon was tge next driver to fit the soft tyres, and put his Williams at the very front of the field, setting a 1:19.794 to leapfrog the reigning world champion, but that was quickly smashed by Austrian GP winner George Russell, who went fastest with a 1:19.137, with his team-mate and winner last time out Lewis Hamilton slotting in just behind in P2, 0.15s back.
The Virtual Safety Car was deployed shortly after the halfway stage, as marshalls recovered a bodywork piece that was loose before turn 13.
As the track returned to green, it was Lando Norris who set the pace first, going second-fastest just 0.074s behind Russell, with Piastri slotting in P3 a further four hundredths back.
Charles Leclerc went fastest overall with a 1:19.011, showing some promising pace in his Ferrari after a series of difficult weekends since his Monaco GP win in late May – nearly two months ago.
The Sauber continued to show good pace at the Hungaroring. After Bottas’s early lap that put him at the front early on, Zhou Guanyu slotted into P3 as the session approached its two-thirds mark, just 0.16s behind new pace-setter Carlos Sainz, who led a Ferrari 1-2.
Fernando Alonso confirmed Aston Martin’s bleak outlook at the Hungaroring over the radio. When asked about feedback that could possibly help Stroll on the other side of the garage, the Spaniard replied “good luck” over the radio. With under 20 minutes remaining, the Astons were running P10 and P19, respectively, for Alonso and Stroll.
Max Verstappen later responded to the two Ferrari’s, but couldn’t get near Sainz’s benchmark 1:18.713, slotting in P2 nearly three tenths back on the soft tyres.
George Russell wasn’t impressed by Esteban Ocon’s tactics to protect track position, sarcastically saying it’s “nicely done” from the Alpine driver to defend position in a practice session.
Carlos Sainz briefly ran wide on the exit of turn five, experimenting some of the newly-implemented gravel traps around the circuit, but escaping without damage.
The final classified order of the top 10 was: Sainz, Verstappen, Leclerc, Russell, Zhou, Norris, Piastri, Tsunoda, Stroll and Hamilton.
Just outside the top 10 was Sergio Perez, who ran the old-spec Red Bull, ahead of Ricciardo, Alonso, Albon, Bottas, Sargeant, Gasly, Ocon, Magnussen and Bearman rounding out the field.
