Lando Norris completed a commanding ‘double top’ on Friday with the fastest times ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The 25-year-old Briton, who is 16 points behind Piastri in the drivers’ title race, clocked a best lap in 1:15.624 to outpace the Australian by 0.291 seconds after a tense second session at the Hungaroring circuit.
“The car felt pretty good from the first lap,” he said.
“And all of my laps were decent, but the second session was a bit more messy with more mistakes. But that’s all part of practice I guess.
“We have a good understanding and I know what I want from my car, but of course it is difficult to get it. I have a better car than last year, when I was on pole, and so should have a better chance, but there is tough competition.”
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Charles Leclerc was third for Ferrari, adrift by nearly four-tenths, ahead of the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton in the second Ferrari.
George Russell was seventh for Mercedes ahead of Racing Bulls’ rookie Isack Hadjar, Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull and Kimi Antonelli in the second Mercedes.
All this left four-time champion Max Verstappen, grumbling throughout about his car’s poor balance and performance, down in 14th place, 1.167 seconds off the pace and three tenths adrift of his teammate.
To make matters worse for the Dutchman, who described his car as “undriveable”, his Red Bull team picked up an official warning into his disposal of a cloth towel from his cockpit during the session.
The towel had been left in his car after a pitstop and was a possible danger to his driving if it fell from his lap area between his legs or the car’s pedals.
Red Bull were warned of the “unsafe release” of the car from the pits.
“It was just a towel that you normally wipe your face with when you come back in so it was still in the car when I went out,” Verstappen said.
“Instead of leaving it to, potentially, maybe, fly in between my feet, which is the dangerous part, I drove off the racing line and got rid of it in the safest possible way.
“I think the stewards understood that.”
From the start, it was clear that the duelling McLaren title protagonists were in no mood to take the session lightly as they traded best laps and, in a final late incident, ran close to making contact as Norris locked up and Piastri swept past him around Turn One.
On a bright, dry afternoon, Nico Hulkenberg – who had missed the first session to give reserve driver Paul Aron an outing for Sauber – was first out and within five minutes ran wide and scattered gravel across the track.
As Norris and Piastri dominated, endorsing the clear impression that a McLaren intra-team duel was in prospect for Sunday’s race, Verstappen was down in 10th, adrift by a second, and reported, when asked about his car’s balance, that it was like “driving on ice”.
His teammate Tsunoda was a tenth faster in ninth.
Showing signs that he was feeling the pressure, Norris endured ‘a moment’ when he slid wide on the grass at the final corner and recovered with 15 minutes remaining on used softs.
Like Piastri, the winner here 12 months ago, he switched back to mediums signalling the fight for fastest lap was over.
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