Norris holds edge over Piastri during FP2 in Hungary

Just like in FP1, Lando Norris led Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc in a repeat top three, as Free Practice 2 wrapped up a strong opening day for McLaren at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Having familiarised themselves with the twists and turns of the Hungaroring this morning, the drivers set off for a busy second hour of practice in Budapest.

It was a delayed start to Free Practice 2 for both Liam Lawson and Oscar Piastri, with the drivers hanging back in the newly renovated pit building for the first five minutes of the session before bolting through the 14 corners. 

The first of the two to record a time was the Racing Bulls driver, with Lawson boosting his car into the top ten as he lapped on the medium compound tyre. 

Extending his C4 stint, the Kiwi slipped down the order into P15 before making a return to the front half of the field, setting the eighth fastest time across his first nine laps. 

When he made the switch to the soft compound tyre, Lawson once again found comfort in P8, though he was almost four-tenths slower than his teammate before he dropped to P14.

Abandoning the red-marked tyre, Lawson sought out the C4 tyre once again after a quick stop in the pits, returning to the track to conduct race simulations with 20 minutes on the clock.

It was a smooth run for the #30, who, aside from a lost Williams getting in his way through the final corner, rounded out his race run with a practice start on the grid, while settling in as the 15th fastest man on track in FP2. 

Dipping his rear left tyre on the dirt at the final corner, Piastri left nothing on the table during his opening run in FP2, however, the dusty error impacted him on the timesheets as he crossed the line with the sixth fastest time, while Lando Norris soared to P1.

Recovering on his next tour of the Hungaroring, Piastri righted his earlier missteps to cement a clear lap, allowing the Australian to bypass Norris as he jumped into the top spot with a time of 1:16.697s.

Norris soon snatched the lead position — a theme that continued throughout FP2 where the McLaren teammates simply traded P1 and P2 among themselves.

At the halfway mark, the soft tyre made its first appearance on Piastri’s McLaren.

Rewards were instantly reaped when the Australian recorded two purple sectors on his way to reclaiming P1, with his time of 1:15.915s only momentarily placing him ahead of the #4 before Norris put three-tenths between the pair. 

Piastri found the grass within the second sector, impacting his mission to close the 0.291s down to his teammate and prompting a return to the pitlane.

Piastri rejoined the track action on the medium compound tyre, setting off to conduct race simulations for the remaining 15 minutes of his session. 

On 14-lap-old tyres, the Australian lapped with the third fastest pace of any driver on track, falling short of Norris, whose tyres were four laps fresher, and Lewis Hamilton, who remained on the spot compound.

Eyeing up a post-session practice start on the grid, Piastri took the chequered flag as the second fastest driver for the second time on Friday, with Norris remaining the man to beat after Day 1 in Budapest.

As for the remainder of the field, both Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso were back on track after missing the first session, with the Sauber driver stepping aside in favour of the loaned rookie, Paul Aron, while the Aston Martin veteran took the morning off as he continued to manage a muscular injury in his back. 

The medium tyre was the most popular choice of compound to kick off the FP2 action, with this morning’s fastest man starting the session off on an equally strong note when Norris recorded an early benchmark of 1:16.916s, leading over Charles Leclerc and George Russell once all initial runs were completed. 

Not quite matching his rivals’ efforts, Max Verstappen sat one second off the pace during the first half of the session, struggling with balance as he described the sensation in the RB21 “like driving on ice”.

The Dutchman’s issues ultimately lasted the entire session, with Verstappen later labelling the Red Bull “undriveable”.

It wasn’t ice, but rather gravel that caused an issue for many drivers at the start of the hour, though, with rocks sprinkled across the road at Turn 12, as detected by Esteban Ocon.

Gravel had sprayed earlier through the lap as well when Carlos Sainz dipped his left wheels in the unforgiving trap at Turn 7, spraying stones as he wrangled to keep his FW47 in one piece.

Forced out of the fight for ‘best of the rest’, Verstappen’s return to the pitlane allowed the Ferrari driver to cling to the only available spot within the top three, leading over a pair of rookies before the order was turned on its head thanks to the beginning of soft tyre runs.

Following a brief lull in the revised pitlane, the C5 made its first appearance of the session, revealing the first 1m 15s laps of the day. 

The McLaren duo commanded the soft tyre timesheets, leading over a top six separated by a huge eight-tenth margin, while Lance Stroll staked his claim at securing a top-three time.

The Aston Martin held that achievement for mere minutes before Leclerc reinstated his place as the third fastest driver, four-tenths back on Norris, who had a huge moment after dipping a wheel in the dirt on entry to the final corner. 

The drivers each made their way back into the pitlane, with the gradual change from soft compound to medium/hard compound tyre unleashing the field to conduct race simulations during the final 20 minutes of FP2.

Carlos Sainz’s race runs were interrupted when his team informed him that the Williams pit wall had “lost telemetry and all comms” with the Spaniard, an issue that saw Sainz getting caught up in his competitors’ way, and the team toying with calling him back into the pits.

Within a matter of minutes, however, Williams recovered telemetry on Sainz’s FW47, allowing him to remain on track as the final minutes ticked by.

The McLaren duo were close on the time sheets, but even closer on track when Norris was forced to slam on the brakes after exiting the pitlane as his teammate charged down the main straight, locking up into Turn 1 on their way to complete a practice start on the grid. 

For a second time on Friday, Lando Norris ended the session as the fastest driver after setting a time of 1:15.624s to lead over Piastri and Leclerc for an identical top three as the opening day of running came to a close in Budapest. 

The cars will be back on track from 20:30 AEST on Saturday, with just one more hour of practice standing between the field and the fight for pole position at Midnight AEST. 

Image: McLaren

Free Practice 2 Results:

2025 Hungarian Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday, August 01:

Free Practice 1: 21:30 – 22:30

Saturday, August 02:

Free Practice 2: 01:00 – 02:00

Free Practice 3: 20:30 – 21:30

Sunday, August 03: 

Qualifying: 00:00 – 01:00

Race: 23:00

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