Randorris was ahead of his teammate and title leader Oscar Piastri in his first practice session at Hungarian Ligue Rampuri.
Norris was the first of two McLaren drivers, embarking on a soft-tyre ride, setting the first representative benchmark for the weekend at 1M16.052S. Piastri chased after him, but the Australian completed two prep laps before launching a time attack. Despite setting the fastest first sector, he gradually lost time on the laps, reaching almost 0.15 seconds from the pace.
Both drivers returned to the pit lane and rejoined the same tire for a second attempt, but on the first turn Norris’ lockup returned to the pits, but Piastri improved by setting a purple time in the mid-term sector and setting a final deficit at 0.019.
Charles Leclerc has completed the top three that are surprisingly close to the leading McLaren drivers. The Ferrari driver was drifting over 0.7s after the first lap, but found over 0.5 seconds on the second lap with worn tires to finish the session, which had 0.217 seconds off the pace.
The upgraded SF-25 was faster than McLaren cars in both the first sector, consisting of the first three turns and most front straights.
Isack Hadjar was fourth in the Race Bulls and paced 0.629 to split Leclair from teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton had a tough session that began with being confused with what began as a 1S gap with Norris at the beginning of the session. He reported that the car was “not feeling well” and when he was reunited with Soft, he returned to the pits reporting that he was 0.682 seconds away from pace. He then suffered from a huge lockup to his first turn, avoiding flying off the road, destroying the set of soft at the end of a difficult time.
Oliver Bareman was sixth in Haas, with 0.826s from the pace in front of Mercedes duo Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, with the pair closely matching at a pace of 0.828s and 0.873s.
Russell began a session reporting “long, sponge-like” brake pedals, and ended with complaints that he “can’t even turn the car.”
Max Verstappen was more anonymous ninth and 0.888s slower than Norris. Lance Stroll completed Aston Martin’s top 10 in 0.906 seconds from the pace.
Alex Albon was the fastest in the first sector on his way to the 11th ahead of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Guthrie, with the French rejoining the session after reporting a loss of power just 10 minutes into the time. Liam Lawson was 14th in his second Racing Bulls car after meeting his teammate Hajar and then interrupted his flight knee.
Carlos Sainz reported a brake issue. This radioed on the way to the 15th, saying that his car would release the brakes despite lifting it off the pedal.
Felipe Dragavich represented Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin The session ended in 16th and 1.2 seconds.
Drugvich received a late call-up after Alonso pulled out of FP1 with back muscle pain, which stems from the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend. The 25-year-old Brazilian has been an Aston Martin backup driver since 2022, when he won the F2 Championship in 2022, and has made six previous FP1 appearances to date, but has never started the Grand Prix. Aston Martin says he’ll be calling Alonso’s fitness as the weekend continues.
Tsunoda took the second Red Bull racing car to 17th in the frustration that the lack of grip in the through corners could not push him.
Franco Colapinto was 18th place after Gabriel Boltreto. Gabriel Boltreto only finished 17 laps before withdrawing from the session with 15 minutes remaining.
Alpine-assisted Sauber rookie Paul Aron finished the session with no representative time after receiving the “system-critical” alarm in the middle of an hour, nine rounds of the “system-critical” alarm.
Aron, third in last year’s Formula 2 Championship, is a driver of the Takayama Reserve, but was loaned out to Sauber to help the Swiss team fulfill their duties as field juniors in four practice sessions. The Estonian commanded Nico Halkenberg’s car, finishing 3.7 seconds from the pace.
