It was dry but breezy weather today at Budapest for the Hungary GP FP2 with the track temperature at 32 degrees. The winds really picked up and made it a challenging session for most of the drivers on track who said they were struggling with grip or balance on their cars.
Despite that Ferrari were dominating the session with Hamilton taking the lead.
Antonelli, Bearman, Bottas, Piastri and Colapinto were back behind the wheel after rookies drove their cars in FP1.
Happy Day for Ferrari
FP1 already gave reasons for the team to be happy with Charles P1 and Lewis P3 but it got even better in FP2. Both drivers were ahead of the rest of the grid. Hamilton lead most of the session.
Norris was the first to change to soft tyres and set the fastest time briefly before Hamilton and Leclerc easily went back to top of the charts. At the end of the session Ferrari were a whopping 0.499s ahead of Norris. While it is only practice sessions the pace they are setting is looking promising for qualifying tomorrow and the main event on Sunday.
Heartbreak for Stroll
It was a difficult day for Stroll who brought out a red flag in FP1 with a suspected suspension failure. After looking the car over, the reason for the failure is still a mystery but what we do know is that the failed part was not part of the upgrades.
They were hoping to have the issue fixed by FP2 but 2 minutes before the session Ted Kravitz said the car still, “didn’t have a gearbox, rear wing or rear axel on it” and they were still, “having a look, forensically to understand exactly what failed”. The car remained in the garage for the entire session. Hopefully they can fix it by FP3 and get Stroll back on the track.
Car Troubles Throughout The Grid
Early on Pierre Gasly and George Russell both reported their cars feeling dreadful with Gasly saying he feels like he might have an issue with something possibly broken at the front and Russell concerned the car felt very out of balance. Kimi Antonelli nearly spun twice after locking up the rears on braking.
Many drivers had little adventures off track including Albon, Leclerc, Antonelli (repeatedly), Piastri, Alonso and Norris. Antonelli struggled through the session only managing P13 by the end which is very unusual for the young driver this season. Verstappen reported being unhappy with his seating position as well as multiple lockups later in the session.
There were no issues shown from Alonso but after what seemed a big step forward in FP1 where he finished P13, he remained towards the back of the field in P19 in FP2. It seems the upgrades brought by Aston Martin are somewhat working, but maybe not as well as it seemed at first glance.
Unlucky Colapinto
Many drivers got caught up at Turn 14 due to wind and grip issues causing many lockups. Hamilton and Paul Aron both already had a close call in that corner in FP1. Unfortunately it was Colapinto to not be lucky enough for it to remain a close call.
The Alpine driver had a massive lockup, spun off the track and hit the barrier, smashing the back of the car. Thankfully Franco walked away from the incident uninjured after completing 11 laps in FP2. This sent the red flag flying just after Norris had topped the timesheet on soft tyres and gave him couple extra minutes to enjoy it before Ferrari reclaimed their lead as soon as the cars were back on track.
What we Learned
Despite the windy conditions and the lockups during FP2 in Hungary, it was a successful session for the teams who were testing their upgrades and beneficial for the drivers to get the feeling of the new cars at the Hungaroring.
Final results of the session were Lewis Hamilton leading with a fantastic time of 1:18.729s followed closely by Charles Leclerc who was only 0.148s behind. Lando Norris reached a solid P3 followed by Verstappen, Russell, Hadjar, Lawson, Piastri, Hulkenberg and Lindblad.
Formula 1 will return tomorrow morning for Free Practice 3 at 11:30am, before Qualifying at 3pm BST GMT-2.
Feature image courtesy Scuderia Ferrari Media Centre