Leclerc fastest, Red Bull outside top 10 in odd Hungary FP2

Daniel Ricciardo was 14th fastest in the first representative session of his Formula 1 comeback with AlphaTauri, as Charles Leclerc set the pace in second practice for the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Key moments

– Leclerc fastest from Norris
– Both Red Bulls outside the top 10
– Ricciardo four tenths down on Tsunoda

After a first session heavily disrupted by rain and red flags, Ricciardo finally got down to some proper running in FP2 at the Hungaroring.

He was visibly tentative at the start of his first run, but gradually worked down from 1m21.0s to 1m19.5s on medium-compound Pirellis – putting him within a tenth of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda on the same tyre.

During the qualifying simulations on soft rubber, Ricciardo lapped in 1m18.385s, while Tsunoda briefly topped the timesheet with a 1m17.934s best that ended up being good enough for fourth overall.

Ricciardo had another attempt after a cool-down lap, but was a tenth slower than his own best on his second flying lap.

For context, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has said Nyck de Vries was dropped because he struggled to consistently get within two or three tenths of Tsunoda’s pace.

Lando Norris continued McLaren’s impressive recent form by dislodging Tsunoda from top spot with a 1m17.7s effort before Leclerc’s Ferrari edged ahead by just 0.015s.

Pierre Gasly was third quickest for Alpine and the only other driver to lap below 1m18s.

The upgraded Red Bulls ran slightly out of sequence with the majority of the field, opting to go straight onto the soft compound without exploratory running on the medium tyre, perhaps owing to the reduced tyre allocation for this weekend.

Max Verstappen was only 11th quickest, almost six tenths off the pace, while Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez – who crashed heavily at the start of FP1 – was only 18th in his repaired RB19, almost 1.3s off Leclerc and four hundredths slower than Logan Sargeant’s Williams.

Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas rounded out an unusual top six order, ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Zhou Guanyu and Carlos Sainz.

The Alfa Romeos are expecting to do better on this lower-speed track layout and set their best times on the medium compound tyre, while Alonso – whose Aston Martin was 0.02s down on Bottas and just 0.003s faster than Zhou – did his best time on the soft.

Sainz was almost a full half-second down on Ferrari team-mate Leclerc, but nearly a tenth quicker than Verstappen.

Lance Stroll and Alex Albon – whose Williams was faster on mediums than it was on softs – were the last two drivers to lap quicker than Ricciardo.

Both Mercedes drivers and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri languished outside the top 15. Hamilton was 16th, Piastri 19th and FP1 wet-track pacesetter Russell slowest of all – but all three set their best times without running the soft compound.

On mediums, Piastri was only two tenths off Norris on a like-for-like run – with a time that matched Russell’s to the nearest tenth of a second, while Hamilton was around four tenths quicker still. And both Mercedes were quicker than the Ferraris on that tyre compound.

Practice 2 Results