Lando Norris topped the first practice session for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri made it a McLaren one-two with Charles Leclerc chasing.
Norris who posted a best lap of 1:16.052, was just 0.019s ahead of Piastri as McLaren, once again, were fast out of the box.
Leclerc was the driver who managed to get closest to the Papaya cars as he finished the session third fastest, 0.217s off the pace of Norris.
Isack Hadjar was fourth fastest for the Racing Bulls, but 0.629s off the pace and 0.053s clear of seven-time Formula 1 champion, Lewis Hamilton, who was fifth fastest in his Ferrari and not happy with how it was driving all session long.
Oliver Bearman was sixth fastest for Haas with Kimi Antonelli seventh in the Mercedes, the Italian followed by George Russell, eighth fastest in the sister Mercedes.
The came Max Verstappen, ninth fastest and 0.888s off the pace in his RB21 as he was suffering from understeer throughout the session.
Lance Stroll completed the top ten in his Aston Martin.
Worth noting that it would be good not to read much into the times as the track was green and was rubbering in throughout the first 60 minutes of running which means the pecking order may be a bit skewed.
What is sure though is that McLaren are the favorites once again.
Buildup towards FP1
It one more race before we head into a well-deserved summer break as F1 lands in Budapest for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, a back to back race following the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix.
A few questions have been answered as F1 kicked off its activities in Budapest with Ferrari extending Fred Vasseur's contract while Verstappen finally confirmed he would be sticking with Red Bull Racing, at least for 2026 which meant Russell could breath a sigh of relief since this means his will also keep his Mercedes seat for 2026 although no official announcement has been issued from Brackley.
Speaking of Mercedes, they have been dropping backwards with their W16 with both Russell and Antonelli suffering, the latter more so as the team seems to be planning to revert to an older suspension specification to see if that would help their drivers.
In terms of tyres, Pirelli has brought the C3 (Hard), C4 (Medium) and C5 (Soft) compounds this weekend.
McLaren and Ferrari did not reveal any new parts in their car submission documents while Red Bull Racing have a revised front wing and brake ducts for better cooling.
Mercedes also showed no new parts while Aston Martin have a track-specific front wing on their AMR25 while Racing Bulls have revised brake drums for better cooling as wells track specific cooling louvres on their engine cover.
Alpine, Haas, Williams, and Sauber did not present any new parts.
Alonso has pulled out in the last minute as he is suffering from back injury with Drugovich stepping in for FP1 while no decision about the Spaniard has been made beyond that.
Alpine reserve driver Paul Aron was driving the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg as well.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session kicked off in hot conditions as the track temperature was 41 degrees Celsius as ambient temperatures at 26 degrees.
No one wasted any time and a few second following the green light, the drivers made their way out on track with a mix of Hard and Medium compounds bolted on the cars.
Soon Russell reported: "Brakes feel long and spongy."
And soon after, Gasly radioed: "No power." His engineer asked him to pit so the team could fix the issue.
The Bortoleto ran wide at Turn 3 and drover over the kerbs with sparks flying from the floor of his Sauber.
15 minutes into the session, Norris was on top of the timing screens and Hamilton was eighth, over a second of the pace and was on the radio asking his engineer where he is losing time to his compatriot. He was told at Turns 5, 8, and 9.
Russell had a bit of a moment out on track.
As the time passed, the track continued to evolve and improve with lap times dropping with every lap, but Hamilton was not happy informing his team: "The car doesn't feel good."
Halfway into the session the Yellow flag was out as Aron parked the Sauber on the side of the track at Turn 13, and radioed: "I've got systems critical alarm."
The team instructed him to turn off the car as the Virtual Safety Car was out to allow the marshals to clear the stricken Sauber from the track which did not take much time and the session was soon back on.
As practice resumed, the teams and drivers started switching to the Soft compound for some qualifying runs, Colapinto the first driver to do so.
Sainz then went deep into Turn 1 after locking up. He kept his Williams out of the barriers and was on his way.
Bortoleto had another off moment at Turn 4 giving his car another beating over the kerbs.
Then Norris and Drugovich both suffered huge lockups at Turn 1 and then Hamilton did the same moments after that.
The, the Racing Bulls' driver almost ran into each other as a fast Lawson came upon a slower Hadjar the former informing the pit wall that he almost ran into the back of his teammate.
As the session entered the final ten minutes, it was back to long runs with heavy fuel loads.
Norris ran wide coming out of Turn 12 and drove into the gravel trap as Russell did the same moment after that as the latter soon reported that he could not turn the car.
Piastri then had a snap of oversteer in Turn 12 dipping one wheel in the gravel.
The session was concluded with practice starts.
Hungarian GP FP1 Classification
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