Charles Leclerc topped a shaken-up dry second practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly.
Ferrari driver Leclerc used a new set of soft tires to set a best time of 1m17.686s to pip McLaren’s Norris by just 0.015s, with Gasly’s Alpine a further 0.217s adrift.
The final hour of Friday practice featured a diverse array of running plans that made comparisons between drivers difficult to make.
Title leader Max Verstappen ended the session 11th and 0.593s off the pace, having focused on conducting long runs on a single set of soft tires rather than the customary demonstration of one-lap pace.
Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and George Russell similarly had their focus elsewhere on their way to 16th and 20th respectively. Neither driver used a set of softs, choosing instead to focus on long stints on medium rubber.
It lent the session a somewhat subdued vibe, particularly given FP1 had been washed out by a sudden heavy downpour, which would ordinarily prompt a flurry of on-track activity in the follow-up hour.
Several drivers also completed an unusually small number of laps, including session leader Leclerc, who logged just 20 times with a longest stint spanning nine laps.
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The reason for the unusual session was the sport’s experimental tire rules in force this weekend, which have seen each car have its allocation of rubber cut from 13 to 11 sets for the round, including a halving of soft tires from eight to four.
Teams interpreted the best way to maximize their tire allocations differently, which led to final classification sheet likely to bear limited resemblance to the true performance order.
Yuki Tsunoda rocketed to fourth for AlphaTauri at a quarter-second off the pace, beating Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin ahead of Zhou Guanyu in the second Alfa and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari, the Spaniard almost half a second slower than leader Leclerc.
Verstappen was only 0.04s quicker than Lance Stroll, with Alex Albon fractionally behind.
Daniel Ricciardo ended his first dry session 14th. He was 0.699s off the pace and 0.451s behind AlphaTauri teammate Tsunoda.
Kevin Magnussen was 15th ahead of Hamilton and Williams rookie Logan Sargeant.
Sergio Perez’s difficult day continued following his FP1 crash. While the Mexican kept his car out of the barrier in the second session, an enormous lock-up on his sole qualifying simulation lap at Turn 11 badly flat-spotted his soft tires, forcing him back to his garage.
Perez didn’t have enough softs to bolt on a fresh set on account of the tire rules, leaving him to switch to his medium-tire long-run simulations for the rest of the hour without setting a representative single-lap time.
Oscar Piastri was 19th after spending much of the time in the McLaren garage for repairs to his damaged floor. The car had appeared to be bottoming out on the tarmac significantly early in the session.
Russell propped up the table in 20th for Mercedes.
