There are invariably some anomalous patterns on the first day of Formula 1 practice around the Hungaroring.
The demands its long, medium-speed corners make of the rear tyres – overheating them to the extent that even a qualifying lap requires tyre management – make the set-ups even more compromised than usual.
There's variance as everyone tries to find a workable compromise between rear-protecting understeer over a qualifying lap and decent long run duration.
Then there’s trying to read the evolution of a track which ramps up in grip spectacularly – and also a surface/layout combination which can overwork the medium tyre more than the soft.
But some things shine through regardless.
McLaren has got a good margin on the field, even running what appear to be conservative power settings. That 0.4s advantage over Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari over a single lap is probably only slightly flattering.
In the long runs, Leclerc is closer but the McLaren drivers appear to have split how they would hit the long runs – with Norris beginning much more aggressively than Piastri. Leclerc seemed to have found a happier medium. As such, the long run averages probably flatter the Ferrari slightly.
“It’s been a promising day,” Norris allowed. “The car felt good from the first couple of laps.
Long run averages
1 Alonso* 1m22.030s (4 laps)
2 Piastri 1m22.130s (9 laps)
3 Norris 1m22.132s (7 laps)
4 Leclerc 1m22.214s (7 laps)
5 Antonelli 1m22.359s (10 laps)
6 Hamilton* 1m22.407s (8 laps)
7 Albon 1m22.427s (9 laps)
8 Russell 1m22.450s (6 laps)
9 Verstappen 1m22.476s (9 laps)
10 Sainz 1m22.658s (11 laps)
*on soft tyres, all other drivers on mediums
"The competition is tight, but I've got a good feel for what we need from the car, so we’ll work on that overnight and make sure we’re in the best possible position going into qualifying tomorrow.”
Looking at how each of the top three cars derive their laptime, the Ferrari is slow to bring its tyres up to temperature and falls significantly behind the McLaren and Mercedes early in the lap.
The Mercedes has no such trouble in generating good initial temperature but is wildly overheating its rears by the end of the lap.
By the Turn 6-7 chicane, George Russell (helped by the best straightline speed) is even marginally ahead of Lando Norris. But over the lap he falls to 0.8s behind – and 0.4s off the Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton was less happy with the Ferrari’s balance than Leclerc and was generally a couple of tenths adrift. But his long run simulation was made on the soft tyre so there is no direct comparison.
Russell knew the tyre demands of this place were never going to be a good match with the Merc’s traits.
“We've re-introduced the previous specification of our rear suspension to find more stability in the car," he said.
"We didn't expect to have a major breakthrough moment but overall, the car felt better to drive and gave me more confidence.”
Kimi Antonelli was on much the same pace as Russell, a welcome development after the despair of Spa.
The McLaren’s temperature control is, as ever, in a different class to the others and this would seem to lay the foundation for another race of McLaren dominance.
In terms of the comparison between Norris and Piastri, both have found it a little tricky to make error-free laps on new tyres, Piastri in particular.
“A few bits to tidy up,” as he put it. But he and Norris appear incredibly evenly matched.
The hierarchy on Friday was very unambiguously McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes. It couldn’t be said with certainty that the Red Bull was even clearly the fourth-fastest car.
Max Verstappen sounded despairing as the RB21 seemingly became ever less well-balanced as the track evolved. The circuit’s long corners are not a good fit with the Red Bull’s traits and the requirement to protect the rear tyres just made it even more of a handful over a race stint simulation.
“Today was quite tough,” Verstappen admitted, “and it was a low grip feeling in the car and not as balanced as we would have liked.
"It is difficult to say what the problem was, as nothing really worked. We need to understand what was causing the problems and I’m sure that we can do better and turn things around.”
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Williams and Racing Bulls were snapping at the heels of Verstappen and appear quite evenly matched, the RB better over a lap but worse on the long runs than the Williams. Aston Martin’s P4/5 positions in the headline times were in no way reflected in the car’s long run performance and might be the product of a lighter fuel load.
Alonso’s fast average in the long run, which tops the above table, was relatively meaningless at a duration of just four laps on the soft tyre compared to the longer medium runs of most of the others.
