F1 Hungarian GP: Sainz quickest in FP1 over Verstappen, Leclerc

Carlos Sainz opened the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend with the fastest time in FP1, over a quarter of a second clear of Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen.

Sainz posted a 1m18.713s amid a flurry of soft-tyre runs at the start of the session’s second half, beating an earlier benchmark set by team-mate Charles Leclerc.

High track temperatures had pushed the mercury above 58C, creating difficult conditions for the drivers to coax their cars around the Hungaroring.

George Russell opened with a 1m20.980s benchmark on medium tyres – which was overturned by Verstappen, who went almost three tenths quicker on the softs.

Although the Mercedes driver found more time to set a 1m20.083s, Verstappen continued to circulate on the C5 tyre and posted the first sub-80-second time: a 1m19.831s.

Oscar Piastri got close to this on the mediums, falling just 0.007s shy of the Red Bull driver, although Alex Albon then hurled his Williams to the top of the order before the session ticked over into its second half. The Anglo-Thai driver set a 1m19.794s on softs, but this was eclipsed by Russell’s first soft-tyre lap: a 1m19.137s.

Leclerc got his Ferrari onto the top spot five minutes later, but this was later eclipsed by team-mate Carlos Sainz, who logged a 1m18.713s – both drivers running soft tyres and equipped with a new floor in response to the instability issues caused by the Barcelona package.

Verstappen attempted to return to the top, but his 1m18.989s fell just short of Sainz’s earlier effort; it was nonetheless good enough for second, two hundredths of a second clear of Leclerc.

Leclerc and Russell were third and fourth, while Zhou Guanyu survived an earlier issue with his Sauber shedding cooling louvres from its new sidepod package to sit fifth in the timing order.

Lando Norris and Piastri were sixth and seventh fastest, while RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was close behind with the eighth-best time.

Although running Aston Martin’s older package for FP1, as the Silverstone squad introduced new upgrades for Hungary, Lance Stroll claimed the ninth-fastest time. British GP winner Lewis Hamilton was 10th in the order, 0.15s clear of Sergio Perez.