Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Hungaroring, 2022

Leclerc fastest in second Hungaroring practice as Norris splits Ferraris

2022 Hungarian Grand Prix second practice

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Charles Leclerc ended Friday as the quickest driver around the Hungaroring as Lando Norris was second fastest ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr.

Leclerc’s best time of a 1’18.445 was two tenths of a second quicker than Norris, who backed up his promising pace in the earlier session. Sainz was third, just one hundredth of a second behind the McLaren, with Max Verstappen fourth, a quarter of a second away from his championship rival.

With Saturday increasingly likely to be entirely wet, making the most of this second hour of dry running would be crucial for all 20 drivers. The vast majority of them headed out on the medium compound to start the session. Leclerc set the early benchmark with a 1’18.911, six tenths of a second quicker than team mate Sainz.

Verstappen was seven tenths of a second slower that Leclerc after his initial eight-lap run on the mediums, while Lewis Hamilton was dismayed to learn that his best time in the early laps was nearly two seconds off of the pace of Leclerc, also on the medium tyres. Race engineer Peter Bonnington advised him that almost a second of that gap came from the straight-line speed difference.

Alexander Albon brought out the yellow flags in the first sector after locking up his rear wheels under braking for turn one and spinning into the run-off. After a brief delay righting his car due to a false neutral, Albon managed to rejoin the circuit and the yellow flags were rescinded.

Norris stuck a set of soft tyres onto his McLaren and used them to jump into the top spot with a 1’18.662. Although that was soon beaten by Leclerc, who chipped two tenths of a second off Norris’ time, no one else managed to beat it.

Verstappen fell shy of their times on his first flying lap on the softs, moving into fourth place behind Norris and Sainz, despite appearing to exceed track limits on the exit of the final corner.

In the final 20 minutes of the session, teams switched focus to long runs, mainly on the medium tyres. Leclerc was delayed leaving the pits after striking a jack on his way out of the garage. Eventually, Leclerc joined the many others out on track, including team mate Sainz and Verstappen.

Verstappen’s average lap time on his run was a 1’24.0, approximately half a second slower than Sainz’s pace. But with none of the top drivers looking to improve their overall best times, the chequered flag fell with Leclerc fastest of all at the end of Friday’s running.

Norris held onto second place in the McLaren, ahead of Sainz and Verstappen fourth. Daniel Ricciardo finished the session in fifth, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and George Russell’s Mercedes. Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top 10.

2022 Hungarian Grand Prix second practice result

Position Number Driver Team Model Time Gap Laps
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari F1-75 1’18.445 27
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes MCL36 1’18.662 0.217 29
3 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Ferrari F1-75 1’18.676 0.231 29
4 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull RB18 1’18.728 0.283 26
5 3 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes MCL36 1’18.872 0.427 27
6 14 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault A522 1’19.049 0.604 30
7 5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR22 1’19.253 0.808 31
8 63 George Russell Mercedes W13 1’19.355 0.910 28
9 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull RB18 1’19.397 0.952 28
10 77 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo-Ferrari C42 1’19.411 0.966 30
11 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes W13 1’19.547 1.102 23
12 24 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo-Ferrari C42 1’19.605 1.160 26
13 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault A522 1’19.614 1.169 27
14 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR22 1’19.702 1.257 30
15 10 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Red Bull AT03 1’19.730 1.285 28
16 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari VF-22 1’19.818 1.373 29
17 47 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari VF-22 1’19.985 1.540 28
18 6 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes FW44 1’20.488 2.043 30
19 22 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Red Bull AT03 1’20.521 2.076 31
20 23 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes FW44 1’20.615 2.170 20

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2022 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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7 comments on “Leclerc fastest in second Hungaroring practice as Norris splits Ferraris”

  1. :O Norris. But he is well known for one lap pace. This could cause some headaches for Red Bull and Mercedes. Imagine if he qualifies 2nd then jumps the pole sitter at the start..

    1. He’ll probably end up having his lap time deleted for track limits. He went over them at least twice on his p2 time today.

      1. You’re just spoiling the party mate.

    2. @krichelle
      Forget the McLarens, they were just showboating today! Their long runs were much slower than Ferrari and fuel corrected also slower than RB.
      On his second long run stint on the softs, Norris was lapping on average 0.3 slower than Sainz did on his first stint. Fuel corrected that’s about 0.8-1 sec slower than the Ferrari, which is still not bad, but nothing what their single lap pace suggested. However they might beat Mercedes here, if the Silver Arrows don’t find some pace overnight.
      Qualifying might take place in wet conditions or half wet/half dry and Norris is pretty good in those changing conditions. Maybe that offers an opportunity for McLaren. Otherwise it’s a certain fornt row lockout for the Ferraris (if it’s dry tomorrow).

  2. It’s going to rain almost all day tomorrow as per current predictions so should be interesting. No rain expected for Sunday

  3. What a shame that McLaren’s pace isn’t real! They were 1.2 off the pace at the last race and their long run pace suggests they are only slightly closer to the front this weekend. They were clearly running a more powerful engine mode on their short runs. Anyway, they might beat Mercedes to ‘best of the rest’ here, because the Silver Arrows had a horrible practice day.
    As for the battle at the front, Ferrari clearly hold an advantage over RB here, both on short and long runs (even more so on high fuel). On their long runs, Leclerc was lapping 0.5 on average faster than Verstappen (both on mediums). Though Charles did also one (representative) timed lap less than Max (7 laps for Charles – 8 for Max). So the gap might be a little bit smaller, but probably not more than a tenth in RB’s favor. Sainz’s soft stint was also impressive (same stint length as Leclerc) as he was even 0.1 faster than his teammate, but the degredation was also higher. The soft might be a touch too fragile for the race or at least the opening stint.
    I wonder if Pérez has fallen out of his comfort zone with the RB again. Since the balance has shifted more towards oversteer, he’s been losing lots of time to Verstappen. Here he was on average 0.6 slower than Max and 1.1 than Leclerc (long run pace). With that kind of pace even the McLarens could pose a threat to Checo.

  4. @srga91

    Perez is running the Spa spec car says Ted Kravitz… Nope he is just bad he and Ocon went life and death together. Could you imagine the likes of Max Lewis Charles going up against a 42 yr old Alonso in there prime they would destroy him every time dont let the pts gap fool you Alonso is dealing with Ocon interms of pace way more than Checo did.

    Checo will end up losing to the Mercs this season i bet and his advantage is huge, look at Bottas in Lewis title winning yrs he was 2nd ahead of Max can you see Perez with more margin doing the same?. People do not talk about Max’s awful teammates enough. He would still beat them no doubt in my mind but Lewis is going up against a real talent. Perez is like a poormans Bottas he is foolsgold.

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