Ferrari rises again in Hungary? Carlos Sainz is the fastest at the end of the first free practice session in Budapest, on a slow and hot track. The Spaniard with soft tyres achieved an excellent 1’18″713 while there were 31 degrees of air and, even, 60 of asphalt! The Madrid native with the SF-24 equipped with the latest aerodynamic package with an update in the diffuser immediately found himself at ease, giving the impression that the red seems to have found the thread of the skein.
Charles Leclerc is third, 298 thousandths behind his teammate: the Monegasque found traffic on his flying lap and then when he tried again to find the time with the same train he went wide at turn 12. Nothing serious, because the most interesting data that emerged from the opening Hungarian session is that Ferrari also seems to be back to offering a good pace in the long run.
Cavallino fans should not delude themselves because the red car was put on the track with a good starting set-up, but we know that the red car is strong with a green asphalt. The Scuderia started the weekend in the best possible way, restoring the morale of the drivers after the last disappointing races.
Between the two Ferraris is Max Verstappen with the revolutionized Red Bull: the Dutchman worked only with the soft tyres trying to collect data. The Milton Keynes team brought a deeply revised RB20. Max did the time when the track was still green and the gap of 276 thousandths is not indicative, because the three-time world champion dedicated himself to doing a series of comparative tests for the approval of the new front wing compared to the old one. The world champion team did not do a long run preferring to gather information on the package of innovations that changed the hot air vents, giving up the bazooka.
Sergio Perez with the more traditional RB20, but equipped with the new floor identical to Max’s, finished 11th, half a second behind the “captain”. It is true that the Mexican is under observation, but it is fair to say that Checo began the session by carrying out aerodynamic tests with a large array of sensors and then dedicated himself to various set-up changes. Red Bull, therefore, used the first hour to compare the data of the two configurations and on more than one occasion the two drivers lapped at constant speed to have comparable information.
Mercedes confirms its positive moment: George Russell has put the W15 in fourth place, but the Englishman, like Lewis Hamilton, has only run on medium tyres, so the gap of four tenths from Sainz is not particularly significant. The seven-time world champion is only tenth struggling with a more difficult black-silver arrow that tends to lock the front wheels.
The surprise of the round is Guanyu Zhou with the standard Sauber, while Valtteri Bottas debuted a very advanced C46. If the Chinese is fifth ahead of the two McLarens, the Finn is only 15th. Valtteri is looking for the set-up before looking for performance.
Lando Norris is sixth and precedes his teammate Oscar Piastri by 38 thousandths: the two MCL38s have done a job focused on the race, rather than the single lap. Smiles in the Racing Bulls house: Yuki Tsunoda has put the car from Faenza in eighth place giving the impression that the thread of development has been found after a few difficult races in which the latest updates had not worked. Daniel Ricciardo, on the other hand, is only 12th further back.
Lance Stroll with the revised and corrected Aston Martin is ninth: the Canadian did not express flattering opinions on the package of innovations, but we must give the technicians time to work. In difficulty, once again, Fernando Alonso only 13th: the Spaniard seems to have lost motivation not seeing a reversal of the trend.
Alexander Albon with Williams is 14th: the Anglo-Thai ruined a bottom in a digression off the track and despite this he was faster than Logans Sargeant 15th. Alpine in difficulty with Pierre Gasly ahead of Esteban Ocon already on the starting line.
Haas closes the list with Kevin Magnussen just ahead of Oliver Bearman who continues his apprenticeship towards promotion to full driver in the American team: the Englishman took the car vacated by Nico Hulkenberg.
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