FP1: Sainz heads Verstappen and Leclerc during first practice in Hungary

Carlos Sainz set the pace during the opening practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, with the Ferrari man leading the way from the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and fellow Scuderia driver Charles Leclerc.

It was a sweltering start as the session got underway at 1330 local time, with a stream of cars heading out to put some early laps on the board in the warm conditions. Some of these – including the RB20 of Sergio Perez – were sporting aero rakes to test out how their latest upgrades were performing.

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Also out on track was Oliver Bearman, competing in his fourth FP1 session of the year for Haas ahead of his arrival as a full-time driver with the team in 2025. Oscar Piastri, meanwhile, spent the opening phase of the session in the garage as the McLaren squad worked on a technical issue with the car.

Verstappen set an early benchmark on the soft compound, putting in a time of 1m 19.831s to kick off a weekend where he will likely be looking to return to the top step of the podium, having missed out on victory to Mercedes during the last two rounds.

There were traffic issues for some, with George Russell angrily suggesting that Yuki Tsunoda “wasn’t looking in his mirrors” after the RB cut across the track in front of his Mercedes. Elsewhere, Lance Stroll reported that his Aston Martin was “quite shocking to drive” on a weekend where his team mate Fernando Alonso is running a raft of updates.

As the session wore on and the times started to tumble, the names at the top continued to change as several different run plans played out across the field, while a Virtual Safety Car was briefly called to recover a piece of debris from Turn 12, seemingly from the Williams of Alex Albon.

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Ferrari looked increasingly dialled in as FP1 progressed, with Sainz and Charles Leclerc going fastest with 20 minutes left on the clock. However, Leclerc soon had a moment at Turn 12, suggesting that the Monegasque wasn’t feeling quite as comfortable as his team mate.

Despite a flurry of laps coming in during the latter stages of the hour, Sainz’s quickest time of 1m 18.713s remained unbeaten, putting him 0.276s clear of Verstappen, while Leclerc took third ahead of Russell in fourth.

Zhou Guanyu was an impressive fifth for Kick Sauber, despite reporting losing some pieces of bodywork earlier in the session, with the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Piastri following in sixth and seventh respectively.

Tsunoda took P8, while Stroll and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top 10. Perez slotted into P11, ahead of RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Alonso, Albon and the Kick Sauber of Valtteri Bottas.

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Logan Sargeant was 16th for Williams, from the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon down in 17th and 18th respectively. Kevin Magnussen – whose departure from Haas at the end of the season was announced this week – took 19th, leading from Bearman in 20th.

With the first practice session of the weekend complete, the teams and drivers will have the opportunity to debrief and cool down before returning to the track for second practice at 1700 local time.