Motorsports

Hamilton leads Leclerc to a Ferrari one-two in second practice at Hungarian GP

Published: 

Lewis Hamilton led Charles Leclerc to a Ferrari one-two in the second practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion crossed the line 0.148 seconds faster than his teammate, setting an overall time of 1:18.729.

The Hungaroring looks to be suiting the Ferraris after Leclerc was quickest in first practice. However, his session came to an end early after he limped back to the pit lane with a car issue.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was third-fastest and was just under half a second off the pace.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished fourth, while Mercedes’ George Russell rounded out the top five.

Kimi Antonelli was back in this session after missing out on the first session of the day as rookie Fred Vesti replaced the title leader.

But the Italian youngster was off the pace and finished in a struggling 13th place.

He is 45 points adrift from Lewis Hamilton in the title standings, with Mercedes’ Russell a further five points back from Hamilton.

Antonelli will be targeting his seventh career race win at the Hungaroring.

Isack Hadjar in the other Red Bull was sixth-fastest and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson was behind. Oscar Piastri was eighth in the McLaren and was over a second off the pace from leader Hamilton.

Nico Hülkenberg crossed the line in ninth, and rookie Arvid Lindblad was down in 10th.

Lance Stroll suffered a rear suspension issue in the first session on Friday. Aston Martin, who has brought major new upgrades this weekend, later confirmed he would not be taking part in the last session of the day.

Team boss Adrian Newey remained positive and said: “Provisional results are promising, it’s only part of the package so we’ll have some more steps in Zandvoort and then further steps in Monza-Baku so it’s the first part of our planned upgrade. Very short on parts so we’re being careful with it and trying to learn all about it.”

Franco Colapinto brought out the red flag at the midway point of the session but walked away unharmed.

Saturday’s final practice session will begin at 11.30 a.m. before qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix at 3 p.m.