BUDAPEST — With a dry track in front of him during the second Formula 1 practice session at the Hungaroring in Budapest, Charles Leclerc laid down a 1-minute, 17.686-second lap on soft tires, vaulting him into the provisional lead.
Leclerc kept his Ferrari ahead of McLaren driver Lando Norris, who finished practice as the runner-up with a 1-minute, 17.701-second lap time. Alpine’s
“I’m sure other teams didn’t show their full potential so it’s hard to know our position compared to the rest of the field, but so far, I’m happy how the sessions went today. Hungary is hard on tires, especially on the C5 soft tire compound we’re using this weekend, but it allowed us to gather more data about the car, where I felt confident with the consistent balance throughout the long runs,” Gasly said.
Alphatauri’s
Defending champion Max Verstappen had an uncharacteristic practice day, finishing 11th with a 1-minute, 18.279-second lap time.
“We want to be the quickest in qualifying, but first we need to do a bit more running with different tire sets to get a better understanding. The car felt not too bad, there was a bit of understeer but when I went out on the long run we looked competitive. It’s difficult to say over one lap pace, but overall the car is still strong,” Verstappen said.
