Ferrari leads and Aston Martin improves with doubts in the first free practice at the Hungaroring

The Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) was the fastest in the first free practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the eleventh round of the F1 calendar at the Hungaroring track, ahead of the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and the Englishman Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), while Carlos Sainz (Williams) was last and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), thirteenth, although with a better feeling after the improvements in the car.

Leclerc set a 1:19.075, improving with the soft tires the fastest lap of Verstappen, who was four tenths behind (1:19.559), and Hamilton, half a second away (1:19.618). The ‘top 3’ was far from the rest, since the Frenchman Isack Hadjar finished fourth, nine tenths behind, the same as the Englishman George Russell, in a first session that was not very encouraging for the ‘Silver Arrows’. Nor for McLaren, with Lando Norris out of a ‘top 10’ in which Audi and Racing Bulls were.

With the initial medium tires, the best, as expected, were the Ferraris, with Leclerc and his 1:20.287, which improved by three tenths the time of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who on the radio, however, complained that his SF-26 felt “really bad.” Meanwhile, Williams was working with Carlos Sainz’s lifted car, which had done only 10 laps.

But the halfway point of the session arrived and the soft tires were on, so the times began to drop considerably. The first to take the lead was George Russell, but his joy was short-lived, as Verstappen quickly set a 1:19.559, half a second better than the Englishman from Mercedes.

Although it seems that this circuit is favorable to ‘Il Cavallino Rampante’, and Leclerc, already with the red tires, returned to the top, putting four tenths on ‘Mad Max’ and five on Hamilton. Then, the session was interrupted with a red flag because Canadian Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin stopped at Turn 3 due to a suspension problem.

The work program of the British team with the new AMR26B was thus paralyzed, which arrived in Hungary with a total of 16 new features, although only for a few minutes. The first objective was to compete with Cadillac, after Valtteri Bottas finished a minute ahead of Fernando Alonso.

And, with doubts, it was achieved in this first session, with a 1:21.550 from the Asturian in his only good attempt on soft tires, half a second better than the Mexican Sergio Pérez, the best on the American team. At 2.4 seconds behind Leclerc, it is the smallest difference between the best Aston Martin and the head of the time table since the Monaco GP.

The first Free Practice ended marked by an off-track by Sainz, who had to block about 200 meters to stop his Williams before the protections when going wide in the first corner of the Hungaroring. The Madrid native finished last this session, unable to set a competitive time due to this incident and several aborted attempts due to traffic.

In this session there were up to five test drivers: Ryo Hirakawa replaced Olie Bearman (Haas); Colton Herta, to Bottas (Cadillac); Frederik Vesti, to Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes); Paul Aron, to Franco Colapinto (Alpine); and Leonardo Fornaroli, to Oscar Piastri (McLaren).