Ferrari Leads the Way at the Hungarian GP After Friday Practice

In Free Practice 1, Carlos Sainz was the fastest man in the session, with a lap time of 1:18.750 minutes. Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen was right on his tail, as he was only 0.130 seconds slower.

Charles Leclerc seems to have recovered from his French Grand Prix disaster, as he claimed P3 amidst strong competition from both Red Bull and Mercedes competitors. It felt somewhat surprising to see Lando Norris in P4, but then again, McLaren is the most successful F1 team to have raced in the Hungarian GP so far, with 11 previous victories.

Mercedes drivers took P5 and P7, respectively, with Lewis Hamilton being the last driver on the grid to complete a lap within a 1-second gap away from the leader. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez was sixth overall and he must be feeling the heat from both Sainz and Russell in the race for the championship.

The winner of last year's GP, Esteban Ocon, was the most diligent driver in FP1 with a total of 30 laps. Still, his pace was only good enough to have him sitting in P9 overall, about half a second behind Daniel Ricciardo.

Robert Kubica got his chance of driving an F1 car again, but the Polish legend could only finish P19 with so little seat time this year. Meanwhile, Latifi was the slowest driver of the session, with a lap time of 1:21.413 minutes. Moving on to FP2, it was Leclerc's time to shine, and he improved on Sainz's lap by 0.305 seconds.

Lando Norris continued to put on a strong performance, as he was just 0.217 seconds behind the Scuderia Ferrari driver in P2. With Carlos Sainz claiming third, it must have been frustrating for Christian Horner at Red Bull to see Verstappen in fourth and Perez in ninth overall.

Seeing Daniel Ricciardo in fifth must be a fresh breath of hope for Australian F1 fans, as he was faster than both Mercedes drivers during this session. Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel weren't far behind, while Valtteri Bottas completed the Top10 with a lap time of 1:19.411 minutes.

The slowest driver of the session was Alexander Albon in the Williams Mercedes, some 2.170 seconds behind Charles Leclerc. The third and final free practice session of the weekend will be starting shortly.

The qualifying session is set to start at 4 PM GMT+2, and once again, we'll see the 20 drivers fighting for the top spot on the starting grid throughout Q1, Q2, and Q3. Chances are that it might rain throughout the day, which means drivers are going to have a difficult time revealing their true potential on the Hungarian race track.

And if the same happens for tomorrow's race, hopefully, we'll get to see a fifth driver claiming victory this season. Up until now, Leclerc and Verstappen have won most of the races, with Perez and Sainz each registering one victory.