Lewis Hamilton headed team-mate Valtteri Bottas to a Mercedes one-two in first practice at the Hungarian GP. Hamilton was 0.086 seconds quicker than the Finn despite running harder tyres as Mercedes looked dominant. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was third, 0.527secs adrift, and 0.437secs ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll.
Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo took fifth, from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Red Bull, who came to Hungary expected to pose a bigger challenge to Mercedes on this track than at the previous two races in Austria, appeared to be struggling.
Verstappen, who became involved in an on-track confrontation with Williams driver Nicholas Latifi after the Canadian blocked him, was 1.4secs off Hamilton’s pace, despite the Dutchman using the softest possible tyre and Hamilton the hardest.
Red Bull’s pace was so far off its usual level that the assumption must be that they were running in a different specification than the others.
