Carlos Sainz topped the first practice session for the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, as Max Verstappen was only second fastest in his upgraded RB20.
The first practice took place in clear yet hot conditions, as the Pirelli rubber was getting a beating by the scorching surface of the Hungaroring.
After their recent struggles, it was somehow a surprise to see a Ferrari on top of the timing screens, the Red Cars featuring a revised floor this weekend, something the team dubbed as an evolution of their most recent Barcelona upgrade.
But that was the outcome, as Sainz topped the timing screens ahead of Verstappen who was quite a bit off the Spaniard in the upgraded Red Bull RB20 - almost three tenths.
But knowing Red Bull, they will take their time to set the new car up, keeping in mind that Sergio Perez in the other car, the older spec was 11th half a second slower than his teammate.
Charles Leclerc was third fastest with George Russell fourth fastest, while a surprising Zhou Guanyu was fifth fastest in the heavily upgraded Sauber.
From what we've seen, the key for a fast lap around the Hungaroring will be to keep the tyres alive for the full lap and prevent their overheating.
Aston Martin who also had a massive upgrade did not seem to be in good shape, as Fernando Alonso running the revised AMR24 was out of top ten, teammate Lance Stroll ninth in the old car.
Buildup towards FP1
We head to Budapest this weekend for the double header - Hungarian and Belgian GPs - before Formula 1 enters the summer break.
And the anticipation continues as we enter the second half of the season with Mercedes winning the last two race, announcing their comeback with much fanfare, while the it is now on Red Bull to respond and hit back at McLaren and Mercedes if they can.
Perez will be looking to prove to his Red Bull bosses that he deserves the contract extension he was given and try to keep the likes of Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda out of his seat.
McLaren will be looking to execute cleaner races after falling short recently while Lewis Hamilton will be fired up to deliver win #105.
Kevin Magnussen starts this weekend having been officially announced to be leaving Haas at the end of the season, with his replacement yet to be announced.
Oliver Bearman, a confirmed 2025 Haas driver will replace Nico Hulkenberg for FP1, as he gears up for his full time F1 debut.
In terms of tyres, Pirelli have brought their softer range of tyres to the Hungarian GP: C3 (Hard), C4 (Medium), and C5 (Soft)
In terms of upgrades, there are plenty for the Hungaroring, starting with Red Bull who have brought a new front wing, a new engine cover with re-sculpted sidepods, a revised Halo, revised front suspension (re-profiled lower wishbone forward leg) as well as a revised wrap-around profile of the rear-wheel bodywork.
Mercedes have only brought a lower deflector end plate trim on the rear corner, while Ferrari have a revised floor which they hop would reduce the bouncing.
Aston Martin on the other hand have a new front wing, beam wing, revised Halo, new floor body, new floor fences, new floor edges, as well as a new diffuser.
Alpine have new rear inlet and exit ducts, while Williams have a revised coke/engine cover with cooling revisions related to the track in Budapest.
VCARB have revise front internal ducting with updated winglets on the rear corners as Haas have a revised engine cover and cooling louvres to meet the requirements of the Hungaroring.
Sauber have a major upgrade package with new: sidepod inlets, coke/engine cover, floor body, floor edge, rear suspension, and Halo.
Sauber also revised the rear corner with new brake scoop ducts, with reshaped deflector geometries and associated suspension fairings.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in clear conditions with air temperature at 31 degrees Celsius, while track temperatures recorded a scorching 58 degrees.
These hot conditions will be a challenge for the teams who will have to keep their cars cool not to mentions managing the tyres.
Running was soon underway, as Red Bull sent Perez out on the old specification RB20, Verstappen having the latest spec. Back to back tests apparently.
Oscar Piastri remained in the garage with ten minutes elapsed as the McLaren mechanics seemed to be doing quite some work on his MCL38.
A mixture of Medium and Hard tyres were in use, while Verstappen started with the Softs and set the fastest early on.
After 15 minutes of running, Piastri finally joins the action.
Magnussen locked up early on, and later it seemed he wasn't happy with the brakes as his team asked him about their state as he reported they were terrible.
Zhou reported things coming off the side of his sidepod, which turned out to be parts of the cooling louvres, while Lando Norris had a bit of a moment at Turn 13.
Leclerc had a moment at Turn 12, going into the gravel trap, while there was a close call between Russell and Tsunoda who pushed the Briton onto the grass. No contact but Russell reckoned the Japanese VCARB driver wasn't looking into his mirrors.
Stroll didn't seem to be happy with his car, he is running the older spec, but he reports: "The car is shocking to drive right now."
Halfway into the session, more Soft tyres started to make an appearance, as the drivers started some hot laps o low fuel.
On his first run on Softs, Russell went fastest of all, over half a second faster than Alex Albon in second, Verstappen was third fastest.
Hamilton soon went second fastest, 0.150s behind his teammate, as the seven-time F1 Champion samples the Soft tyres for the first time in the session.
Replace showed some bodywork coming off the Williams of Albon, which caused a brief Virtual Safety Car period as the marshals collected the debris.
Norris soon went second fastest, 0.074s behind Russell, and Piastri soon goes third fastest behind his teammate. Leclerc in the meantime was on a hot lap and shoots up to the top, 0.126s clear of Russell, as the track started rubbering in, but soon Sainz goes even faster.
Things didn't seem good look for Aston Martin. Alonso was asked for feedback on car balance to help the "other car". The Spaniard responded: "Yeah, good luck."
Alonso by the way is running the upgraded car. Doesn't seem good for Aston Martin.
Leclerc had another moment at Turn 12, the rear snapping and then he went wide into the run-off area, but rejoins in once piece.
Replay showed Hamilton, no back on Medium tyres locking his front right tyre.
A second run in for Russell, this time with Ocon, who according to the Mercedes driver, was in the middle of road, defending.
"Nicely done," Russell sarcastically comments.
With the quali runs completed, the teams set out to do some longer runs on harder rubber in the final part of the session as Sainz's time remained unchallenged.
How they finished
Sainz posted a 1:18.713 to go fastest of all with Verstappen 0.276s adrift in second while Leclerc was 0.022s further down the road in third.
Russell was fourth fastest, 0.424s off the pace and 0.023s ahead of Zhou, the Chinese driver a surprising fifth in the Sauber.
McLaren was up next, with no upgrades, Norris was sixth fastest, almost half a second off the pace, with Piastri overcoming early technical issues to go seventh fastest, 0.038s behind his teammate.
Tsunoda was eighth fastest, ahead of Stroll in ninth and Hamilton in tenth.
Perez was 11th ahead of Ricciardo in 12th and Alonso in 13th, Bearman was 20th.
Hungarian GP FP1 Classification
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