F1 Hungarian GP live commentary and updates - FP1

Max Verstappen currently P9, 0.888s off the leading McLaren. But Red Bull seldom turn the wick up on Fridays.

Lance Stroll is P10, which might give Fernando Alonso some added motivation to pop an Ibuprofen and get back in the saddle.

So with just five minutes left to run we're unlikely to see any more improvement in headline lap times. Lewis Hamilton will be pained by that four-tenths deficit to his team-mate.

Slightly further back, a hat tip to Oliver Bearman - P6, albeit 0.826s slower than Norris's benchmark. Two thousandths of a second behind him is Kimi Antonelli, who will close out this session ahead of team-mate George Russell on the timesheet. That will be an important confidence-booster for him.

It's no longer soft tyre o'clock. Just Lawson on them now, coming back out for a second crack (on used softs) after his previous flier was scuppered.

The rest of the field look to be seeing out the session on mediums, with Hadjar, Stroll, Albon, Sainz, Drugovich and Tsunoda on hards.

Meanwhile, on that last soft-tyre run, Piastri improved to 1:16.071 - 0.019 off Norris's best.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

It's a tale of two halves at Racing Bulls. Hadjar is P4 - albeit six tenths off Norris – but then team-mate Lawson nearly tripped over him on his own hot lap and is way down in P14, five tenths further adrift.

Replays showing Felipe Drugovich having a lurid lock-up at Turn 1, going way out into the asphalt run-off. He'll not be using that set of softs again. Ditto Lewis Hamilton, who has almost burst his front-right. Drugovich currently P16 while Hamilton's best of 1:16.681 presently good for P5.

Leclerc back out on mediums.

Norris back in almost straight away. Looks like he locked his right-front wheel into Turn 1 on his flying lap and called off the attempt. Earlier this week we explained why he is using and alternative front-suspension design which Piastri is eschewing.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Norris coming back out on softs he's already used. Piastri also out but our screen hasn't updated what tyres he's using yet.

Albon now purple in sector one as Leclerc improves on his second run, going around in 1:16.269.

Albon has to apply more than just a 'dab of oppo' as the back end steps out in Turn 8, so he aborts that lap.

Piastri goes purple in sector one, but just PBs in two and three, to post a 1:16.194 lap. That's 0.142s off Norris.

Anything you can do...

Norris returns to P1 with a 1:16.052. What a riposte! 0.739s faster than Leclerc's equivalent soft-tyre run.

Pierre Gasly is back out on track after remedial work in the Alpine garage. Currently on softs.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Unsurprisingly, on softs Leclerc has gone back up to P1 with a new benchmark of 1:16.791. Albon now P3 with 1:16.984.

Max Verstappen - remember him? - is currently P7 with 1:17.275 but yet to set a representative time on the softs.

Norris and Piastri now out on softs, as are Russell, Ocon and Bearman.

Interesting to note that Colapinto is currently P6 with a 1:17.959 he set on mediums.

Meanwhile, as we pass the half-way mark, a bunch of competitors have gone to the soft tyre: Leclerc, Sainz, Albon, Colapinto, Verstappen, Hamilton and Bortoleto.

Piastri is lapping on new mediums, but a few tenths off full 'McLaren pace', so perhaps on a long run here - currently four laps in.

Norris goes top again with a new benchmark. We're now into the 16s - 1:16.837. That's six tenths faster than Leclerc in P2. Looks like he set it on the same set of mediums he was on previously; he's now headed back to the pits with another six laps in the tank.

Lewis Hamilton is now P10, having been demoted another spot by Liam Lawson, and his best lap is 1.558s off Norris. "Car doesn't feel good," he harrumphs on the radio.

Hamilton has put in a 1:18.395 - that's just under a second off his team-mate. But now he's been bunked down to P9 by Isack Hadjar.

It is he!

Leclerc's second sector is purple, third is 'merely' a PB, but it's enough for a 1:17.420 and top of the timesheets. That's where you find a second, Lewis...

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Charles Leclerc out on used mediums, purple in sector one on his first hot lap...

So, yes, let's confirm where Lewis stands in the pecking order at the moment: P8, 1.095s off the current best time set by Lando Norris.

Questions questions

"Norris another second ahead again, or seven tenths?" Lewis Hamilton asks race engineer Riccardo Adami. He wants to know where that time is coming from.

"Turns 8 and 9" comes the answer.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Norris puts in a 1:17.631s lap on mediums to go top - more representative running now, though Piastri is 0.618s off. Norris goes back into the pits after 6 laps while Piastri has re-emerged. Russell's previous best time is now P11.

Gasly business

Pierre Gasly heads pitward, complaining "no power".

Drugovich isn't the only 'interloper' in this session. Alpine junior Paul Aron is in the Sauber Nico Hulkenberg will be driving for the rest of the weekend.

,Paul Aron, Alpine F1

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

George Russell goes to the top of the timesheets with a 1:19.111s lap. The McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris had set the early pace but now they've also been displaced by Sainz and Albon. Still, we're only a few minutes in.

What's going on?

There are a few items of intrigue to watch out for in this session. While the majority of the teams have merely made tweaks to wings and bodywork to suit the hot conditions and higher downforce requirements of this circuit, Mercedes has "reverted back" (to use the tautological phraseology of George Russell) to Mercedes' previous rear-suspension spec.

Kimi Antonelli has struggled during the 'European season' after the new spec was definitively introduced in Canada, where Russell won.

"In a way it's always been on the radar," said Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. "One of the inconvenient facts was that that was on the car in Montreal where we had a very good weekend. Now that circuit is very different to some of the recent ones.

"But if we looked over the past three tracks, high-speed performance hasn't been where it was. The drivers talked about lacking entry stability and then just this general sense that they didn't have the trust in the car that they did earlier in the weekend. With the wet races that we've had, perhaps arriving at that conclusion wasn't as swift as if we'd had a straightforward run of dry races and dry sessions.

"And then on top of that we had other set of experiments that we were playing with around the time of Montreal and Austria. But we were starting to get to a stage where the next logical thing is to wind back on that change and see if we can recover that stability that they are craving."

Mercedes' Italian driver Kimi Antonelli looks on inside the cockpit of his car ahead of a delayed start of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix after a red flag due to visibility at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Spa, on July 27, 2025. (Photo by YVES HERMAN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by YVES HERMAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Photo by: Yves Herman / Pool / AFP via Getty Images

Hungarian GP - FP1 coming soon!

Good morning everyone - just 10 minutes until FP1 gets under way. Stick with us as we bring you updates throughout the session. 

One change to be aware of - Fernando Alonso has a back muscle injury, so Felipe Drugovich will be taking part in this session.