McLaren maintained their Hungarian Grand Prix advantage as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were first and second fastest respectively in FP2.
While the gap between Norris and Piastri was a mere two hundredths of a second in FP1, Norris managed to increase it to over two tenths at the end of FP2 posting a 1:15.624.
It is worth noting though that Piastri's qualifying lap was a but scruffy as he had to deal with quite some traffic in the final sector and as such Charles Leclerc - once again the best of the rest - managed to be the closest to the McLarens and was third fastest but four tenths off the pace of Norris as the Papaya cars remained in a league of their own.
Lance Stroll was fourth fastest in the Aston Martin, half a tenth off the top and one tenth ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso who was back in the cockpit after missing FP1 and was fifth fastest.
Seven-time Formula 1 Champion, Lewis Hamilton, was sixth in the other Ferrari over three tenths slower than his teammate, seven tenths off the overall pace, while less than a tenth clear of former teammate George Russell who was seventh fastest in the Mercedes.
Isack Hadjar continued his strong form an was eighth fastest in his VCARB ahead of ninth-placed Yuki Tsunoda while Kimi Antonelli was tenth.
But the driver who was really in trouble was Max Verstappen who ended the session down on 14th, 1.167s off the pace as he struggled with the balance of his car all session long with understeer and at some point labeling his RB21 undriveable.
So the McLaren boys will be fighting each other in qualifying on Saturday, but can Red Bull Racing and Verstappen find some gains?
Buildup towards FP2
McLaren set the pace in the first practice session earlier today on the Hungaroring, as there was nothing to choose Norris and Piastri while the rest of the field were quite a bit behind.
And though there was no surprise when the Papaya cars topped the timing screens in FP1, it was surprising how others struggled around them, especially Verstappen who was almost nine tenths off the pace while Leclerc got close but had to work hard for that.
The track was still green in the first hour of running and was evolving all the time so expect more of that in FP2 as hopefully we can get a clearer picture on the pecking order - behind McLaren that is.
After missing the morning session due to his back injury, Alonso will be back in the car for FP2 after getting some treatment and being cleared by the FIA.
FP2 Session Highlights
The dry conditions continued into FP2 as track temperature was slightly higher at 42 degrees Celsius while air temperature also rose to 27 degrees.
As the light turned green at the end of the pitlane, Nico Hulkenberg made his way out on track keen to make up the time he lost in FP1 when Paul Aron took over his car.
In the meantime, Red Bull Racing were busy working on Verstappen's car as the front end was off. Antonelli's Mercedes was also up on the stands.
Esteban Ocon was concerned about gravel at Turn 12 damaging the floor on his Haas and radioed the team asking to have it checked.
Replay showed the culprit who was Hulkenberg that ran wide at Turn 12, dipping his wheels into the gravel trap and throwing gravel on the track.
Soon after, there was a moment of misunderstanding between Russell and Oliver Bearman. Russell tried to get out of the way of Bearman in the tight middle sector.
However, Bearman thought Russell impeded him and moved his car towards the Mercedes which did not go down well with George.
Then Tsunoda was over the radio saying the balance is "so messy" and when Verstappen's engineer asked him about the balance limitation on his car he said it was front and rear like "driving on ice".
Then Hamilton, on a timed lap, lost his car at the chicane having been extra late on the brakes and couldn't make the chicane and had to abort the lap and dive into the pits.
25 minutes into the session and Carlos Sainz was the first driver to bolt on the Soft tyres and start a qualifying simulation. He ran wide at Turn 7 but posted the third fastest time.
Soon more drivers switched to the Softs and qualifying simulations were in full swing. Norris made a mistake and had to abort his first lap.
Piastri the ran wide coming out of the chicane and went over the kerbs quite Hard.
The Norris had quite a snap in the final corner and ended up in the run-off area and lucky not to have crashed. Russell had a front row seat to that and radioed: "Oh! Norris!"
Meanwhile, Verstappen was being noted for an incident at Turn 3 as it seemed he took both hands off the steering wheel, bent into the cockpit and picked what looked like a towel/cloth and threw it out of the cockpit.
In the final 20 minutes of the session the long runs were underway.
Then Sainz's engineer in a panicking voice asked him to box as there was an electrical issue with the car and that it was not safe.
Sainz was told that the team lost telemetry and all comms but then instructed to stay out as telemetry was back.
Verstappen was soon over the radio claiming he couldn't understand what was going on with his car, that it was undriveable.
Then Hadjar complained about losing the front end on his car while on the long runs but his engineer explained he was running in traffic asking him to keep his head down.
Norris and Piastri had a close call in the dying moments of FP2, the latter to pass the former who locked up and just avoided contact.
Hungarian GP FP2 Classification
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