Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of putting himself firmly in the championship fight were boosted on Friday as Ferrari delivered an impressive one-two finish in second practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Mercedes have been the dominant force this season, winning eight of the 10 grands prix so far and taking every grand prix pole position.
Ferrari have won the other two, but those victories came in the last four rounds as both Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc found form.
After a strong start to the season, Hamilton is second in the championship, 45 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli and five ahead of George Russell in the other Mercedes.
Hamilton had trailed Leclerc by 0.037sec heading into the final 15 minutes of FP2 at the Hungaroring, but found enough time on his second run on the soft tyres to lead his team-mate by 0.148sec at the chequered flag.
Lando Norris was third for McLaren, 0.499sec behind Hamilton whilst Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull, nearly 0.7sec off the pace.
Mercedes had a surprisingly messy session, though they looked faster in race trim than over one flying lap.
Antonelli, who missed first practice as Frederik Vesti stepped into his seat, failed to set a representative flying lap on the sofTS. His first run was disrupted by Franco Colapinto crashing his Alpine at the tricky final corner, which brought out a red flag.
In his second attempt, the Italian missed the turn six and seven chicane after locking his rear axle.
He finished in 13th, nearly two seconds adrift.
Russell, who desperately needs to make up ground on Antonelli as Formula One heads into its summer break, was fifth but nearly a second away from Hamilton’s best time, having never looked fully comfortable on a tricky day for most of the field.
Twelve months ago at this track, Hamilton reached his lowest point of a difficult first season at Ferrari, describing himself as useless and calling for the team to replace him.
A record-extending ninth victory at this tight and twisty track just outside Budapest is far from a formality, as Leclerc is back in form and Mercedes are more likely to become part of the fight.
It does, though, look far more likely than a repeat of last year’s misery.
In the last four rounds, Ferrari have scored more points than Mercedes, 120 to 114, whilst Hamilton has outscored everyone.
This is partly because Mercedes’ record has been marred by non-finishes, but that is all part of the equation in winning a title.
Further down the order, there was concern and encouragement for backmarkers Aston Martin, who have experienced a woeful season so far.
The team brought their first upgrades for the year – 16 parts in total – to their car (AMR26) for this weekend.
Unfortunately, the updated car continued where the previous one left off.
Lance Stroll suffered a dramatic rear-left suspension failure during first practice as he went through turn two, spinning wildly.
He at least managed to prevent any further damage by keeping the car out of the barriers.
The incident drew looks of concern from designer and team principal Adrian Newey on the Aston Martin pit wall.
During the same session Fernando Alonso was told by his team to keep the car off the kerbs as a precaution and also suffered vibrations in FP1.
Newey said that the team were “feverishly” trying to understand the problem and also stated that the problem did not come from an upgraded part.
It was not all bad, though.
Alonso finished first practice in 13th, heady heights for a team who were more than five seconds off the pace in Belgium last weekend.
Previously, Aston Martin had finished higher than 16th in only one non-race session across the 2026 season.
However, in second practice Alonso slipped down the order to 19th, 2.990sec off the pace, but at least within touching distance of those ahead.
Earlier in the day Newey was asked about the possibility Christian Horner, the former Red Bull team principal with whom he worked for two decades, joining Aston Martin.
“Yes, I keep hearing about these rumours with Christian.
I can’t comment further.
I don’t really know anything about that,” Newey said.
“All I can say is that we’re very happy with our senior management team.
And we may do some minor tweaks, but the personnel we have at Aston Martin, we are very happy with.”
Horner has been out of F1 since being sacked by Red Bull last July and made his return to the paddock earlier this month at the British Grand Prix.
He had also been linked with Alpine, but the 52-year-old stated at Silverstone that he was “in no rush” to make a decision about his future.
