The Hungaroring has long been a favourite of the McLaren car, and in its ultimate form in 2025, the MCL39 looks totally unstoppable.

A circuit dominated by long medium-speed corners is massively rewarding not only the car’s prodigious downforce but also its unique ability to keep the tyres cool.

Whereas the tyres on most other cars are screaming enough by the end of just one qualifying lap in Budapest, the Pirelli rubber on the corners of the McLaren car is still right within its operating window.

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Lando Norris topped both practice sessions from Oscar Piastri, with Charles Leclerc third twice for a consistent Ferrari.

By the end of the day the Monegasque was almost 0.4 seconds off the pace, but even this margin might be slightly flattering. Even in race trim, when the field should be condensed, McLaren looked comfortably forward of the pack.

It means the sport is set for what looked like the most likely outcome before the weekend started: a straight shootout between the championship contenders.

PIT TALK PODCAST: Can Oscar Piastri head into the midseason break on a high in Hungary? Listen to Pit Talk below.

NORRIS AND PIASTRI RUE SCRAPPY LAPS IN INTRATEAM BATTLE

Norris beat Piastri in both practice sessions, his advantage growing to 0.291 seconds by the afternoon, but the exact margin was hard to read at the end of a messy FP2 for both.

Norris backed out of his fastest lap coming onto the front straight after an error, while Piastri’s fastest time was hampered by traffic.

This was the theme of the day — that in warm conditions around this short, narrow track, getting a clean lap in without tripping over other cars was defining.

“I think [FP2] was a little bit more messy, just in low fuel, high fuel,” Norris said. “A few more mistakes, but it’s all part of practice, trying to find the limits in different areas.

“Good understanding. I think I know what I want from the car, but it might be a bit hard trying to get it.”

But there was more intrigue than just scrappy laps.

Norris was quicker at the start of the lap and clocked a purple middle sector, while Piastri was faster at the end, setting a purple time in the final split.

With tyre management crucial over one lap, even in the easygoing McLaren, there were clearly two separate approaches being trialled to setting a qualifying time.

Piastri set his fastest first sector on the subsequent lap, on used tyres, showing there was more grip that hadn’t been spent.

If you calculate their ideal laps, Piastri would have another 0.249 seconds to gain relative to Norris, which would theoretically reduce the gap between them to just 0.042 seconds.

“The performance has been very good,” Piastri said. “So all in all pretty happy.

“There are some things to tidy up — it wasn’t the smoothest of FP2s — but I think the underlying pace is good, so I’m excited for the rest of the weekend.”

Just 0.022 seconds separated the McLaren drivers for pole last year, with Norris prevailing — he’s never been beaten by a teammate at the Hungaroring.

This season’s battle for pole could be even closer.

Max confirms he’ll stay with Red Bull | 01:28

DON’T EXPECT A REPEAT OF THE 2024 RACE

Two McLaren drivers battling in the front with a handy advantage of the field didn’t prevent McLaren getting itself into a team orders muddle last year, with Norris almost pinching victory from Piastri after initially refusing to swap with his teammate when a team strategy incidentally put him into the lead.

Eventually he relented in an important lesson for the team’s culture in high-stress situations.

But last year there was comparatively little at stake in the drivers championship, even if it was around that time that Norris could see a very narrow route to challenge Max Verstappen for the title.

This year, however, there’s much more on the line, with the drivers championship a straight fight between them.

Team boss Andrea Stella said the team had learnt a lot from last year’s race, and that the team emerged stronger as a result.

“If I take the race we had last year in Hungary, we spent quite a lot of time reviewing that individually with the drivers and together. We tried to learn from each other as much as possible.

“We reminded ourselves that Formula 1 is difficult, and we are always going to face some difficulties. This is an awareness we need to have.

“From there, what can we do to improve? What can we do as a team to make sure we have a framework that allows Lando and Oscar to pursue their aspirations, always protecting the interests of the team?

“Once again, I’m a lucky team principal because the two drivers are very reasonable, very fair, very correct and humble, and above all, they understand that we are here not only to pursue our interest in the present but also to protect the future of their own careers and of McLaren Racing.”

He also credited the drivers for improving their relationship such that he has no real concerns of a blow-up this year despite the title tension.

“The relationship between Oscar and Lando keeps improving,” Stella said. “This is not the effect of a random evolution; this is because we invest in relationships.

“When I refer to fundamentals of Formula 1, relationships are probably slightly less tangible, but I think they are as fundamental as aerodynamics. This involves the relationship between drivers and the team and between the drivers themselves.

“Over time, reviewing this race by race, we have created a solid racing approach, an approach to which Lando and Oscar have definitely contributed.

“It’s not like the team created this racing approach and now Lando and Oscar follow it; we have put it together as a team including drivers.

“I think this is a very robust framework, and this will be more and more important as the marginal value of every race increases as we get closer to the end of the season.”

Piastri wins a wet Belgian Grand Prix | 03:52

FERRARI SECOND BEST AS UPGRADE TAKES HOLD

Pole will surely be fought exclusively between Norris and Piastri. Ferrari was the next-quickest team, but Leclerc was 0.399 seconds down.

“I think this is a track that should suit us quite well, and it has done previously,” Piastri said confidently. “I think we’re in a good place.”

Notwithstanding the margin, telemetry suggests that McLaren was running with its engine turned down. Leclerc had an advantage down every straight; the Ferrari was the quickest car in a straight line bar none.

While set-up difference could account for some of it, there’s likely more in the tank for the already dominant McLaren.

“It looks like it’s out position,” Leclerc said, resigning Ferrari to second-quickest status. “realistically I think it’s going to be very tough to beat the McLaren tomorrow [in qualifying]. They seem a step forward.

“But the feeling with the car has been pretty positive so far. We’ve got to do some steps more in the right direction tomorrow, but for now the feeling is good.

“It’s always very variable from Friday to Saturday, so I think we’ll have to see tomorrow when we come to the track and see whether the pecking order is the same. For now I’ll say we’re in the middle — behind McLaren and ahead of the rest.”

The same doesn’t apply for Lewis Hamilton, who ended up sixth and 0.306 seconds slower than his teammate.

Hamilton had several offs throughout both practice hours, explaining afterwards that he struggled with the balance of the car.

“Today was not a good day for me,” he said. “It’s just a very, very inconsistent balance from corner to corner. You can’t just say it’s understeer, you can’t just say it’s oversteer; it’s just far from being on rails and very out of balance.

“But I think it’s something to do with tyre temperatures, so we’re going to try and figure that out for tomorrow.”

Grip levels were unexpectedly high on Friday, which caught several teams by surprise, and grip also tends to ramp up significantly through the weekend at this circuit.

It’s set to be even warmer for qualifying but overcast conditions and possible rain on Sunday could be a spanner in the works of Hamilton getting the most from the car.

‘Miles earlier!’: Max on rolling start | 01:02

RED BULL RACING DOWNCAST AFTER DIFFICULT DAY

Perhaps the takeaway from the weekend will be that Ferrari’s recent upgrades have unlocked its car, at least enough to be second best.

But part of its relatively comfortable position as the second-best team so far this weekend is the enormous struggle at Red Bull Racing to get any kind of response from the RB21.

With all due respect to Yuki Tsunoda, who appears to be improving, you know it’s bad when Verstappen is 0.306 seconds slower than his teammate.

Verstappen was 1.167 seconds slower than Norris, and he bled time everywhere around the lap. Red Bull Racing does not have an advantage over McLaren at any part of the Hungaroring, and the compound effect of using its tyres more aggressively means the car becomes even less competitive the longer the lap continues.

“Today was very tough,” Verstappen said. “Just a really low grip feeling and not really a balance in the car, so it’s even difficult to say what the exact problem is,” he said. “Nothing really worked, so it’s something that we have to investigate overnight, because so far it’s not been out weekend.”

Red Bull Racing has a habit of making significant steps forward overnight after analysis and simulator work back at base in the UK, but Verstappen was pessimistic that even a Hail Mary from the factory would be enough to get him back into the mix.

“I’m sure we can do better, but today was quite bad,” he said. “We need to really understand first where it is and what is causing us to have such a big problem with the car.

McLaren look really on it, they’re flying. I want to be a little bit closer to P3.”

Wanting to be close to P3 is hardly an aspirational target, but it’s indicative of the team’s position as having the fourth-fastest frontrunner on Friday.

Piastri picks off Norris in first lap | 00:32

THE BATTLE FOR QUALIFYING

The narrowness of the Hungaroring means qualifying is extremely important to finishing position, which will have several teams scrambling for set-up tweaks ahead of Saturday.

The practice time sheet generated a fascinating jumbled order based on pure pace.

Aston Martin ended the day as the third-fastest team, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso — who skipped FP1 with a back muscle complaint — splitting the Ferrari drivers.

It was a remarkable performance, with the team’s upgrades appearing to have delivered good gains everywhere except the track’s slowest corners.

It could potentially leave Mercedes exposed to losing places to its customer team, with George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli ending the day seventh and 10th, the former 0.793 seconds off the pace.

Mercedes has reverted to the suspension package it last used in Imola in an effort to unpick its recent poor form. This might not be the sort of circuit to validate top performance given the car prefers cooler conditions and shorter corners, but Antonelli being just 0.103 seconds slower than Russell suggests the car is not at least giving him more confidence after a tough few months with few points.

“Today was nice,” he said. “I’m pretty happy because I’m getting the confidence back with the car.

“I’m still missing a little bit to the guys in front, but I think we’re working well. We’ve been changing the car a lot because obviously it felt like a big step with the old suspension.

“The car was completely different, and we’re just trying to rebalance the car.”

F1 analysis has Mercedes pegged as the third-quickest team on race pace, but that might not matter if it can’t string together a competitive qualifying lap to start in a representative position.