Practice Two for the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix began at the Hungaroring racetrack took place this afternoon in Mogyorod, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz back on track to complete the Maranello team’s programme for Friday, after F1 showed that we can expect another tight battle against Red Bull, just like was the case over the course of the season, although Ferrari should have the a slight advantage this weekend. We’ve seen Carlos Sainz set the pace for Ferrari in the opening session, but his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc and World Championship leader Max Verstappen looked to respond this this afternoon’s second session.
FP2 began with the Aston Martin cars, and their controversial rear wing, once more the first out on track. We expected another busy session, with tomorrow’s threat of rain leading to teams wanting to take full advantage of these dry conditions.
Charles Leclerc immediately soared to the top of the timesheet with a 1:18.911, as Max Verstappen was 0.7s back in second after the first runs, as Haas’ Mick Schumacher hit plenty of kerb as he almost lost the rear early in FP2 around the chicane at turn 6. Carlos Sainz then closed to just inside of 0.5s of his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, but the Monegasque appeared to be in a league of his own on the medium tyres that the majority of teams were trying out at this stage. Mercedes seemed to be a long way off the pace on this compound, with Lewis Hamilton 14th and George Russell 15th.
Alex Albon had a spin at Turn 1, he momentarily appeared to be stuck in the run-off area, but eventually got moving again and there was no delay to the action, as Lanado Norris went fastest: that was a 1:18.662 for the Brit, although it should be noted that in qualifying he would have lost the lap for going outside of track limits in the final corner. But the McLaren driver’s stay at the tope of the timesheet didn’t last long: Charles Leclerc, with a set of softs on his Ferrari F1-75 car, went a couple of tenths faster, as most of the field switched the soft tyre running again, so there were a few more improvements.
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was third, with the retiring Sebastian Vettel fourth for Aston Martin. Both Mercedes cars had a go on softs, and it was not encouraging at all. Lewis Hamilton was down in seventh, with George Russell 13th. We were yet to see a representative time on softs from Max Verstappen, who was just making his way out on track.
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Max Verstappen got a lap in on the softs, but it was only good enough for fourth – almost three tenths of Charles Leclerc’s leading effort. That lap from Lando Norris therefore looked even more impressive, and remained good enough for second. Meanwhile his McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo put in a decent effort and was in fifth behind the Dutchman. The other Red Bull, Sergio Perez, could only go ninth.
After an up and down FP1, the McLaren cars were showing signs of life in this second free practice session at the Hungaroring: Lando Norris continued to remain in P2, while teammate Daniel Ricciardo was P5. Notably, both cars have outperformed the Mercedes on soft tyres.
The speed in the corners was Ferrari’s biggest advantage around the medium speed turns but Max Verstappen still managed to split them. For Charles there was a moment of concern, as he said on team radio: “There’s something wrong in fourth gear. It feels like the torque is very, very low in this mode. It’s the first time I’ve ever had this, so let’s maybe check?” However, we had an update from the pit lane and that everything was in order, and we saw the Ferrari back out before the end of the session.
Charles Leclerc returned to the track and had a slight moment going off at turn 4, taking too much kerb around the corner, but the Monegasque driver ended FP2 with the fastest time of 1:18.445. In a surprise second place was Lando Norris, who put in a storming lap to leave him just +0.217s off the leader. Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen follow in third and fourth with the other McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo sitting up in fifth. Once again, it was a bit of a disappointing session for Mercedes, George Russell finishing in 8th with Hamilton down in 11th and over a second off the pace.
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