At first glance, Ferrari seemed to dominate the Friday practice sessions at the Hungarian Grand Prix, holding lap times comfortably a half‑second ahead of their nearest rivals. The surface impression, however, was deceptive;OUS long‑run runs with heavy fuel loads at the end of the second practice session painted a vastly different picture.
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who had to abandon his soft‑tyre qualifying simulation after a red flag and a mistake on his second attempt, produced the outright fastest long‑run pace across the entire field. Adjusting for different stint lengths and tyre compounds, Antonelli averaged 0.46 seconds per lap faster than Charles Leclerc, whose race‑simulation was anything but consistent.
Ferrari’s technical team will need to investigate why the Scuderia looked strong over a single lap while struggling over the race distance. The assessment will inform setup refinements for the rest of the weekend.
Lewis Hamilton’s long‑run performance (+0.67 s) was likewise disappointing, with McLaren’s Lando Norris (+0.52 s) and George Russell in the second Mercedes (+0.61 s) outperforming him over the race distance.
During the first practice session, Hamilton had a roughly 0.40‑second per lap advantage over Russell. Yet the episode highlighted that Antonelli remains the benchmark for the Hungarian circuits, with Frederik Vesti missing him in the opening slot.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Like Ferrari, is Red Bull only fast over one lap?
A similar trend emerged with Red Bull. Max Verstappen finished second in the first practice and fourth in the second, but the pair struggled to maintain pace once the cars ran with heavy fuel loads.
Isack Hadjar lagged 0.79 seconds per lap behind Antonelli in the long runs, while teammate Verstappen was 0.82 seconds slower. Unlike Ferrari, Red Bull’s long‑run pace in the first practice had already shown limited promise, potentially prompting a shift towards race‑performance setups on Saturday.
How valuable is Aston Martin’s update?
Aston Martin entered the weekend with a comprehensive update package, aiming to shed the title of the slowest team and break into the midfield. Early results, however, suggest that the anticipated step forward has not materialised. In the second practice’s long‑runs, Fernando Alonso was the second‑slowest driver, trailing by 3.42 seconds per lap, and only marginally quicker than Valtteri Bottas (+3.93 s).
Aston Martin’s primary weakness remains top speed, particularly in the first sector where the team loses time on the longer straights.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Nico Hulkenberg (+1.25 s) once again impressed on Friday with strong long‑run pace, consistent with recent weekends. His main challenge in Budapest is likely the Racing Bulls납 (+1.46 s), while Alpine (+2.16 s) appears to be falling further behind in the development race.
Haas delivered a decent long‑run performance (+1.94 s), while Williams was less competitive (+3.01 s), finding themselves closer to Cadillac and Aston Martin than within striking distance of the top 10.]
