Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to top spot in second practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix after drivers lost around a quarter-hour of running to a Charles Leclerc crash and subsequent red flag.
Leclerc’s session lasted just 16 minutes and ended in the barriers between Turns 4 and 5. The Monaco native was on his ninth lap of the hour when he ran wide exiting Turn 4. The curbs spun his Ferrari out of control, looping it 360 degrees and spitting it into the outside steel barrier, dealing it a heavy whack to the left-rear corner. Leclerc clambered from is stricken car unscathed and was taken back to pit lane in the back of the medical car.
The crash will have damaged the floor on Leclerc’s car, which has been newly revised to overcome the problems that afflicted the team during the last three races. The barrier came of equally badly, with length repairs required to mend the twisted and dented steel, costing teams around 15 minutes of the 60-minute session.
That was some impact! 💥
Charles Leclerc takes too much kerb into Turn 4 and loses control. Fortunately, Charles and his Ferrari came off better than the barrier did#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/t43ZD8qx9m
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 19, 2024
Pit lane reopened with less than half an hour to run, with drivers switching almost immediately onto the soft tire to begin their qualifying simulation runs.
Norris rocketed to top spot with a best time of 1m17.788s, beating Verstappen to the place by 0.243s. Carlos Sainz piloted the sole remaining Ferrari to third, 0.397s off the pace.
Sergio Perez put in an improved showing to end the day fourth. He was 0.467s slower than Norris but only 0.224s off the pace of teammate Verstappen.
George Russell represented Mercedes in fifth at half a second adrift, beating Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Daniel Ricciardo was the lead RB driver in eighth, the Australian 0.583s off top spot, ahead of Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso to complete the top 10.
Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant were 11th and 12th respectively ahead of Oscar Piastri, who lost time in his garage to floor repairs. The damage appeared to have hampered the McLaren driver’s flying lap, which was 0.83s slower than that of his session-topping teammate.
Esteban Ocon was 14th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg — who took back control of his car from 2025 Haas driver Oliver Bearman — Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll in his updated Aston Martin.
The crashed-out Leclerc ended up 18th ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who sacrificed much of his session to a front suspension change that left him down on laps. The Japanese driver then had his flying lap on softs interrupted by slow traffic, leaving him without a representative time.
Zhou Guanyu was last in the order and likewise without a representative time after coming perilously close to repeating Leclerc’s mistake shortly after the session resumed from the red flag.
The Sauber driver was on his fast lap when he lost control exiting Turn 4, spinning on the curbs and narrowly avoiding a collision with Perez ahead of him on the road. The Mexican had been cruising off the racing line but was fortunate that the errant Chinese driver missed him on his way into the run-off area.
His tires shot, Zhou returned to pit lane without a representative time to embark on his race simulation run.
