Norris completes Hungarian practice double as McLaren dominate

New Straits Times

2 days ago

BUDAPEST, (Hungary): Lando Norris completed a Hungarian Grand Prix practice double on Friday as runaway leaders McLaren dominated both sessions while leaving something in reserve and almost colliding at the end.
Norris was top of the timesheets in both sessions at the Hungaroring outside Budapest, with Formula One leader Oscar Piastri second and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc emerging as McLaren's closest rival.
The Briton was 0.019 of a second faster than teammate Piastri, who has a 16 point lead after 13 of 24 races, in first practice and 0.291 quicker in the late afternoon when he set a best lap of one minute 15.624 seconds.
"The car felt good from the first couple of laps," said Norris, who took pole position last year but then lost out to first time winner Piastri.
"I've got a good feel for what we need from the car, so we'll work on that overnight and make sure we're in the best possible position going into qualifying tomorrow."
At the end of the session, with the chequered flag already waved, Norris locked up coming out of the pits for a practice start as Piastri, winner in Belgium last weekend, went around the outside at turn one.
Leclerc was third fastest in both sessions, with Racing Bulls' French rookie Isack Hadjar fourth in the opening one but Aston Martin coming on strong in the second with Lance Stroll fourth and Fernando Alonso fifth.
"McLaren seem to be quite a bit ahead of us but we will stay focused on ourselves and try to turn things around tomorrow," said Leclerc.
Double world champion Alonso had missed practice one due to back pain, with Brazilian reserve Felipe Drugovich standing in for him.
Lewis Hamilton, winner a record eight times in Hungary with McLaren and Mercedes, was fifth and sixth on his return with Ferrari.
"I'm still chasing grip, but we're heading in a positive direction. There's definitely more to extract ahead of qualifying," said the Briton.
Mercedes's form looked more encouraging than at the last race in Belgium, with George Russell ending the day seventh, after earlier complaining about his car's balance, and Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli 10th.
Red Bull's reigning champion Max Verstappen was ninth and 14th respectively in the sessions, with Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda 17th and ninth.
"I don't know what's going on. It's just undriveable, I can't get any balance," said Verstappen over the team radio at one point in the late afternoon.
Verstappen was summoned to the stewards for a bizarre incident in which the four-times world champion threw a towel out of the car's cockpit while on track at turn three. Red Bull were later reprimanded.
Estonian Paul Aron took Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber for the opening session and was last after having to stop before the midpoint of the session due to a technical problem. Hulkenberg was 12th on his return.