HUNGARORING, Hungary, July 19 – McLaren’s Lando Norris set an impressive pace in practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily.
Norris headed Max Verstappen’s upgraded Red Bull by 0.243 seconds, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third, 0.397secs off the pace.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was fourth fastest, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, whose team-mate Lewis Hamilton was seventh, behind Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.
Leclerc lost control at Turn Four, the fastest corner on the circuit, a snap of oversteer taking him onto the exit kerb, from where he spun into the barrier on the other side of the track.
The Ferrari went into the barriers rear first before the front-left corner also suffered an impact. The car looked relatively undamaged considering the speed of the accident at a 150mph corner.
Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu very nearly had a similar accident shortly after the session restarted following a delay of 16 minutes.
He also spun at Turn Four and as his car skidded down the track towards the hairpin of Turn Five it narrowly avoided collecting Perez’s Red Bull.
Behind Hamilton, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Williams’ Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso, in an Aston Martin which also features a major upgrade, focusing on the floor, rounded out the top 10.
Norris said: “A good first day. Definitely a bit more work to do to be more comfortable. I feel like we have the speed in the car; it’s just being able to deliver it when you need to.
“Felt good today but definitely (would like a) bit more from a comfort side so I can deliver a little bit more than one lap a day.”
The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri was down in 13th place after suffering floor damage but was also uncomfortable with his car.
Verstappen said Red Bull had “a good day” with their upgrades. Only he used the revised bodywork and front and lower rear wing. Perez stayed on the previous-spec car all day.
The Mercedes drivers felt they were struggling for pace in the hot conditions, as they did in recent races in Spain and Austria.
Russell said: “Lando was looking really quick. I don’t think Max is too far behind. I think there was probably a power difference between those two on the qualifying laps.
“And then race run, Lando and Max again look a little bit out in front. We need to understand, because in hot conditions of Austria and Barcelona we were off the pace of those two, and in the cooler conditions of Silverstone and Canada we were ahead of them.
“(We) will be in the mix for the top four. Checo seems quite quick today so that might be a bit of a surprise having a fight there.”
However, Russell’s 0.506-second deficit to Norris was explained by his tyres being too cold at the start of his lap, which cost him 0.3secs by the exit of Turn Two.
Mercedes have won the last two races at Austria and Silverstone, albeit that Russell inherited the win at the Red Bull Ring following a crash between Norris and Verstappen.
But Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said he expected Hungary to be more of a challenge.
“The one area where we still have questions is rear-limited tracks in hot conditions,” Shovlin said. “That’s what we’re working on. I wouldn’t put us as favourites here.”
At Ferrari, both Sainz and Leclerc were running a modified floor aimed at solving the aerodynamic problems caused by a previous upgrade.
