{"id":822072,"date":"2026-07-25T02:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822072\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T02:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:16:11","slug":"formula-one-hungarian-grand-prix-lewis-hamilton-runs-first-in-practice-warning-over-hungaroring-relaid-track-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822072\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton runs first in practice, warning over Hungaroring relaid track, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was quick to talk down his team\u2019s hopes after his drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were first and second in Friday\u2019s practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman warned of tyre problems, lack of data acquisition and too many interruptions during a scrappy session. He predicted all Ferrari\u2019s rivals would go faster over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was also clear that Vasseur was satisfied with a strong team performance led by an untouchable lap from Hamilton who is seeking to become the first driver in F1 history to take 10 poles at the same circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, so good,\u201d admitted Vasseur. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is only Friday and it is a good start, but let\u2019s see tomorrow when it can be a different story. Everyone will improve.\u201d <\/p>\n

He added that it had been difficult for Ferrari to gain understanding of their tyres\u2019 performance because red flags, especially in the second free practice, prevented them doing a \u201cproper long run stint\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a messy afternoon with FP2,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seven-time champion Hamilton set the pace with a best lap in one minute and 18.729 seconds to beat Leclerc by 0.148 seconds, leaving world champion Lando Norris, last year\u2019s winner, third for McLaren, but adrift by half a second.<\/p>\n

Four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull was fourth and George Russell fifth for Mercedes, but championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who missed FP1 when Mercedes gave his car to test driver Fred Vesti, struggled to 13th.<\/p>\n

Verstappen said his car still lacks dependability.<\/p>\n

Piastri responds to rumours | 01:14<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a difficult day,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDifficult to find a good balance in the car. We need to make the car more consistent on a lap and make it work on the long runs as well. So, there\u2019s still some work to do for tomorrow.\u201d <\/p>\n

Russell said he was adapting to changes in the surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a strange day out there for everybody. Budapest is an amazing track to drive, but with half of the track resurfaced it was super bumpy,\u201d the Briton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd a lot of it is breaking up around the last couple of corners, which is making it quite strange to drive on.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur single lap didn\u2019t look great, but the long run looked more competitive. We feared Ferrari potentially and it seemed to be the case – they looked very, very strong.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hamilton, who is 45 points behind Antonelli in the title race, said after last Sunday\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix that he wanted to intensify Ferrari\u2019s efforts and was still aiming to bid this year for his eighth world title.<\/p>\n

Hamilton has a career record 104 poles and will hope on Saturday to repeat his last qualifying success, which came in Hungary in 2023, as he seeks a second win for Ferrari this year ahead of F1\u2019s summer break.<\/p>\n

Victory would be Hamilton\u2019s ninth in Hungary, equalling his own Silverstone record for most by one driver at one track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur was quick to talk down his team\u2019s hopes after his drivers Lewis Hamilton and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-822072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}