McLaren drivers Lando Norris (L) and Oscar Piastri Photo: photosport
Lando Norris completed a Hungarian Grand Prix practice double 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.
New Zealand's Liam Lawson was 14th and 15th quickest in the two sessions for Racing Bulls.
Coming off his eighth placing at last week's Belgian Grand Prix, Lawson was slightly off the pace while clocking a total of 58 laps at the Hungaroring circuit.
"It's been a little bit tricky for us today, but the track has been really fun to drive," Lawson said.
"Traffic management here is quite tough, and with one more session tomorrow morning we have a little bit of work to do.
"We're a bit out of position right now and as always, it's very close. If we can find some small things, it will make a big difference to where we are for qualifying."
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls. Photo: FLORENT GOODEN / PHOTOSPORT
Lawson's best time was a lap time of 1 minute 16.812 seconds, in the second session.
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.
Norris was on pole at the circuit last year in a race won by Piastri, his first victory in F1.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Red Bull reprimanded
Formula One stewards reprimanded Red Bull for a bizarre incident involving Max Verstappen throwing a face towel out of his car and onto the track.
The four-times world champion was summoned after the second session as stewards reviewed the video evidence.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. Photo: photosport
"Shortly after Car 1 was released from its garage, the driver of Car 1 (Verstappen) was observed to have thrown a towel out of the cockpit," they said in a statement.
"The driver explained that while in the garage, the face towel had slipped from his lap to the side of the seat and the team was unaware that it remained in the cockpit.
"When the driver realised it was there, he moved to the far right of the track and attempted to throw it as far away from the car and the track as possible."
The towel landed on the asphalt, however, and remained there to the end of the session.
The stewards accepted that the towel was more dangerous in than out, with the potential to become lodged in the footwell and interfere with Verstappen's ability to control the car fully.
They also ruled that Red Bull had therefore released the car in an unsafe condition, although less serious than leaving a hard object in the cockpit.
- Reuters
