Leclerc fastest in CRAZY FP2 in Hungary as Mercedes struggle

Leclerc, Hungary, 2023 — Photo: © LAT Images

Hungarian Grand Prix

Leclerc fastest in CRAZY FP2 in Hungary as Mercedes struggle

Leclerc's Ferrari fended off competition from Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly

Dan Davis

Friday 21 July 2023 18:09 Updated: 20:26

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in FP2 ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix after successfully fending off the rapid Lando Norris.

In a rollercoaster session dominated by contrasting strategies and attempts to tackle the new tyre allocation, Leclerc blitzed his way to the top of the chart with a time of 1 minute 17.686, 0.015s quicker than Norris' McLaren.

Pierre Gasly steered his Alpine home in third spot while Yuki Tsunoda, flying under the radar after Daniel Ricciardo was installed as his team-mate, took fourth.

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Esteban Ocon rounded off the surprising top five, with the heavyweight drivers on the grid enduring mixed experiences around the Hungaroring.

World champion Max Verstappen's attempt at a flying lap saw him settle for 11th, albeit after sporting the same tyres he deployed for much of the session.

Completing the top 10 were Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Zhou Guanyu and Carlos Sainz.

Further down the standings, struggling Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished 16th and 20th respectively.

Sergio Perez, likely still smarting after his costly collision with the barrier early in FP1, completed a little over 10 laps and found himself in 18th.

Ricciardo's first lap

After being unable to run in a rain-hit FP1, a session also affected by two red flags, Ricciardo was finally able to complete his first full lap at AlphaTauri.

It was far from eye-catching but steady enough, with his time the second slowest of the 14 registered during the first five minutes of the action restarting.

At the time, he found himself two seconds behind Norris' leading effort in his upgraded McLaren and 0.3s off Tsunoda.

Indeed, for much of the session he narrowly trailed Tsunoda, his first marker in his likely bid to step up the grid, by just several tenths of a second.

Daniel Ricciardo was belatedly able to complete his first flying lap at AlphaTauri

Perez's bid to spare blushes

A quarter of the way through the session, both Red Bulls emerged with Perez initially looking to ease himself back on the track with soft tyres.

Verstappen, the runaway championship leader, went second on his first flying lap, a stark contrast to Perez's shunt earlier in the day.

Perez's maiden lap initially moved him 0.7s behind Verstappen and into P9. But later on, he suffered from a significant lock-up, forcing him back to the pits.

However, as the track rubbered up with around 30 minutes to go and drivers embarked on low-fuel runs, the unpredictable timesheet continued to change.