Leclerc leads Norris in second practice, Verstappen 11th after limited running

Charles Leclerc set the pace in the second practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly.

The Ferrari driver’s best time of a 1’17.686 on the soft tyres was just 0.015s faster than Norris. Neither Red Bull driver of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, nor the two Mercedes drivers of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell featured in the top ten positions on the times sheets.

After rain interrupted the day’s earlier session, drivers were thankful to have a fully dry track awaiting them when the pit lane opened for the second session. While the majority of teams took full advantage to take to the track, Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez and the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr opted to stay in the garage to begin with.

The two Williams drivers were the only ones to head out on the soft tyres for their first runs of the hour. They promptly topped the early times, with Sargeant’s 1’18.836 a tenth of a second faster than team mate Alexander Albon.

Around a quarter of an hour into the session, the two Red Bulls ventured out for the first time on soft tyres. They were soon joined by the Ferraris, who took to the track on the medium compound. Verstappen came within a tenth of a second of Sargeant’s best to go second quickest, before Yuki Tsunoda put AlphaTauri on top of the times with a 1’17.934 on the soft compound. That was then beaten by Lando Norris, who shaved two tenths off Tsunoda’s previous best time, also on the soft tyres.

Norris’s tenure at the top of the times lasted around ten minutes until Leclerc fitted soft tyres for the first time in the session. The Ferrari driver only just pipped the McLaren to take the top spot by 0.015s, while Pierre Gasly moved into third place, a further two tenths back. With teams focus on long runs over the second half of the session, there were no notable improvements in the later minutes.

There were no notable incidents or problems for drivers in the latter part of the hour, with the chequered flag at the end of 60 minutes confirming Leclerc as fastest of all. Norris was second for McLaren ahead of Gasly and Tsunoda made it four different constructors in the top four places.

Esteban Ocon was fifth fastest in second Alpine, with Hulkenberg sixth for Haas. Valtteri Bottas was seventh for Alfa Romeo, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Zhou Guanyu. Carlos Sainz Jnr was tenth in the second Ferrari, just one place ahead of Verstappen, who only ran a single set of soft tyres throughout the session.

He wasn’t the only driver limiting his laps under F1’s new Alternative Tyre Allocation rules. The Mercedes pair under one set of mediums each, as did Oscar Piastri, who was briefly confined to the garage with floor damage.

Only six drivers did not cover more than 25 laps during the session in which nine drivers clocked at least 30 laps of running over the hour.

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2023 Hungarian Grand Prix second practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’17.686		20
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’17.701	0.015	30
3	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’17.918	0.232	26
4	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’17.934	0.248	31
5	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’18.045	0.359	30
6	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’18.058	0.372	29
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’18.085	0.399	29
8	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’18.105	0.419	32
9	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’18.108	0.422	31
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’18.182	0.496	20
11	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’18.279	0.593	18
12	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’18.319	0.633	33
13	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’18.377	0.691	32
14	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’18.385	0.699	30
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’18.504	0.818	27
16	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’18.746	1.060	28
17	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’18.836	1.150	30
18	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’18.978	1.292	14
19	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’19.117	1.431	18
20	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’19.175	1.489	23

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2023 Hungarian Grand Prix

• Was F1’s Alternative Tyre Allocation test successful? Drivers and teams have their say
• How far can McLaren climb with car rivals now say is the second-fastest in F1?
• Why Ricciardo says McLaren’s car “speaks Lando’s language” – but Norris disagrees
• Mercedes reveal cooling error behind loss of pace in Hungarian GP
• Perez answered critics in Hungary but needs to qualify better – Horner

Browse all 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix articles