George Russell admitted Mercedes’ fears about Ferrari’s likely strong pace at the Hungarian Grand Prix materialised in a Friday practice dominated by their world championship rivals.
Mercedes lead the world championship battles with eight wins from 10 races so far but the tight and twisty nature of Hungaroring had led to suggestions in the build-up to this event that Ferrari, the winners of the season’s other two grands prix and whose car’s strengths lie in cornering, could be the ones to beat this weekend.
Those expectations at least proved accurate on Friday with the Italian team comfortably topping both practice sessions, including a one-two for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the more-representative second hour of running.
Mercedes, by contrast, finished second practice only fifth and 13th fastest – with an unusually-large 0.9s gap to their chief rivals amid balance struggles on single-lap pace. Lando Norris was third in a heavily-upgraded McLaren and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fourth.
“It was quite a strange day out there I think for everybody,” said fifth-fastest Russell.
“Budapest is an amazing track to drive but they’ve resurfaced half the track, super bumpy, a lot of it is breaking up around the last couple of corners which is making it quite strange to drive on.
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George Russell admits Mercedes have work to do after a difficult practice in Hungary, with Ferrari looking strong and windy conditions adding to their challenges
“Our single lap [pace] didn’t look great. The long run looked more competitive but what what we, I guess, potentially feared with Ferrari seemed to be the case.
“They look very, very strong.”
Championship leader Antonelli, who sat out first practice while the team fulfilled rookie-driver running requirements with Frederic Vesti, was down in 13th with his soft-tyre runs compromised by an untimely red flag for Franco Colapinto’s crash and then his own driving errors, including a big lock-up at Turn Two.
Russell added: “We’ve got work to do as a team. Ferrari are a good step ahead of everyone right now.
“I think for both Kimi and I the car was far from great, to be honest, and we think there is room to improve.
“It was really windy today and I think the wind [direction] is going to be shifting so that could be changing a lot.”
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Franco Colapinto lost control of his Alpine at the final corner before shunting into the barriers, causing a red flag in the middle of second practice
Ferrari pleased with fast start but wary of large early advantage
Although they have benefited from some good fortune, Ferrari’s two race wins so far this year have come in the last four races. Hungary marked just the second time all season that they had finished a conventional Friday fastest of all.
Leclerc topped the opening session by a massive 0.4s margin before slotting in 0.148s behind Hamilton in second practice, and said: “It was a relatively strong day.
“From the beginning I felt quite good with the car and performance seemed to be good straight away. So that’s a good thing but the weekend is still long and from the Friday to the Saturday we see teams making a jump of performance.
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Look back at some of the most dramatic moments throughout the years at the Hungarian Grand Prix
“Normally we are on the back foot on the Friday so it’s a good thing we have a good Friday, but we still need to stay on it and work hard in order to get better.
“It’s going to be tight [in qualifying] as always. I don’t expect us to be having the gap that we had today, so we’ll have to do everything perfect. But if the feeling is there I’m sure we’ll do a good job in Q3.”
Hamilton added in Ferrari’s end-of-day press release: “It was a solid day overall. The conditions were quite challenging, with the wind making things a bit tricky and the track feeling quite bumpy in some places.
“The car felt better in FP2 and we made some good progress between the sessions, although there are still a few areas we need to improve. We’ll go through all the data overnight, keep working on the balance and hopefully find a bit more performance.”
Hungary was the scene of Lewis Hamilton’s last Grand Prix pole position in 2023
In keeping with his drivers, team principal Frederic Vasseur was also not getting carried away by Friday’s lofty placing.
“So far, so good, but it’s not on Friday we are doing the pole, even less that you win the race,” he stressed.
“It’s good to start the weekend like this but let’s see tomorrow, it will be another story. I think [third-fastest] Norris didn’t finish the lap… we will see tomorrow.”
Ferrari’s speed nonetheless caught the eye elsewhere too.
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who finished sixth quickest, said: “I knew they were going to be quick on a track like that. At the moment we are waiting for Mercedes to wake up.
“Like always I think it’s going to be very close with the McLarens. That’s where we are at the moment.”
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Look back at some of the most dramatic moments throughout the years at the Hungarian Grand Prix
Oscar Piastri, eighth quickest in the one McLaren that didn’t carry their significant upgrade on Friday, added: “The Ferraris have looked very quick in both sessions.
“But I think Lando looked competitive in that [second] one especially.
“The Mercedes is very hard to read. So let’s see tomorrow. If we execute a good day then it looks like there could be a lot up for grabs.”
Sky Sports F1’s Hungarian GP schedule
Saturday July 25
9am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Hungarian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint*
2.15pm: Hungarian GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: HUNGARIAN GP QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday July 26
7.35am: F3 Feature Race
9.05am: Porsche Supercup
10.20am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Hungarian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: THE HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Hungarian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
5pm: Ted’s Notebook*
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 is in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Sunday’s race starts at 2pm. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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