McLaren maintained a clear and decisive pace advantage in second practice for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, but both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri came close to crashing during a session in which main Formula 1 rival Max Verstappen was only 14th quickest.
Just like in FP1 at the Hungaroring, Norris and Piastri traded fastest times as they and the Hungaroring circuit got quicker.
Norris got down into the late-1m15s on the medium tyre early on with Piastri less than two tenths back, though Piastri touched the grass entering the final corner as both pushed each other and tried to exploit the full width of the track.
Norris extended his advantage in the qualifying simulations, setting a 1m15.624s and lapping 0.291s faster than Piastri on the soft tyres, though both drivers came very close to crashing during this segment - Piastri running wide onto the grass at Turn 8 before Norris almost crashed after touching the grass entering the final corner.
The two McLarens then bizarrely almost collided at the very end of the session, with Norris locking up and narrowly avoiding collecting Piastri at Turn 1 after exiting the pits.
As in FP1, Charles Leclerc was best of the rest for Ferrari, albeit 0.399s off the pace.
The surprise of the session was Aston Martin, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso - back in the car after missing FP1 managing what the team described as a muscular injury in his back - splitting Leclerc from Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton’s relatively late improvement to sixth fastest, on a used soft tyre, suggests the track was still improving some time after most drivers had finished their qualifying runs.
George Russell (Mercedes), Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) and Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) rounded out the top 10.
This was a respectable Friday for Mercedes after reverting yet again from the troublesome rear suspension upgrade first introduced at Imola, but not so for Red Bull and Verstappen.
This was the first time Verstappen has been beaten by a team-mate in a practice session this season.
The four-time champion complained his Red Bull was “undriveable” and like “driving on ice”.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said during the race simulations later. “I can’t get any balance."
Red Bull being outside the ideal set-up window on an F1 Friday is not unusual, and the car does feature a modified front wing and brake duct design for Hungary, but even by Red Bull standards for Verstappen to be only 14th and over a second off the pace was quite extreme.
Verstappen finds something, possibly a towel, in his cockpit and tosses it away
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 1, 2025
Stewards are going to take a look at this after the session #F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/KtmIZWNxR8
There was also a bizarre incident in which Verstappen at one stage slowed down on the straight between Turns 3 and 4 to throw aside a towel that had accidentally been left inside his car during one of his visits to the pits.
FP2 times
1 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m15.624s
2 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.291s
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.399s
4 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.495s
5 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.609s
6 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.705s
7 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.793s
8 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.803s
9 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +0.861s
10 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.896s
11 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +0.943s
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.056s
13 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.080s
14 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +1.167s
15 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.188s
16 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +1.250s
17 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.322s
18 Alex Albon (Williams) +1.397s
19 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.419s
20 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +1.535s
