FP2: Norris leads Piastri during second practice in Hungary as Verstappen investigated for unusual incident

McLaren driver Lando Norris set the pace during Friday’s second practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, leading the way from team mate Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, while Max Verstappen is set to take a trip to the stewards after a strange on-track moment.

Held in partly cloudy but warm conditions, FP2 offered drivers another chance to get a feel for the revamped Hungaroring circuit and fine-tune their set-ups, with cars quick to head out when the green light switched on at the end of the pit lane at 1700 local time.

That flurry included Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who sat out FP1 to nurse a muscular injury in his back, and Gabriel Bortoleto, who had given his Kick Sauber car to Paul Aron for the former F2 racer’s second Friday on loan from Alpine.

It did not take long for the first talking point to emerge, with Nico Hulkenberg running wide at Turn 12 and flicking some gravel onto the track – Haas driver Esteban Ocon and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto both asking their teams to check for potential damage after running through it.

There was also an early moment for Piastri at Turn 4, where the McLaren challenger stepped out during the high-speed entry, while George Russell and Ollie Bearman got close to each other through Turn 9 as their early running converged.

Once all 20 drivers had got laps on the board, Norris held the provisional P1 spot with a time of 1m 16.525s on medium tyres, 0.172s clear of championship-leading team mate Piastri, and almost half a second faster than Leclerc’s Ferrari.

Further back, Red Bull were enduring a difficult start to the session, with Yuki Tsunoda reporting over the radio that “the balance is so messy” and Verstappen lamenting problems at the “front and rear” – adding that “it’s like driving on ice”.

As the halfway mark approached, teams gradually swapped their medium and hard rubber for softs to get some Qualifying simulations in, bringing another wave of purple and green sector times and giving a hint at what’s to come on Saturday afternoon.

McLaren maintained their superiority across this phase, thanks to Norris producing a 1m 15.624s and Piastri clocking a 1m 15.915s – despite the former backing out of his first lap with a wide moment at Turn 2 and later going off at the final corner, and Piastri hitting a bunch of traffic.

Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and Alonso pulled out impressive-looking laps to end the session in fourth and fifth respectively, just behind Leclerc, while the other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top-six places.

Russell was the fastest Mercedes driver in seventh, followed by Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and Tsunoda, with team mate Kimi Antonelli completing the top-10 over Haas pair Bearman and Ocon and Hulkenberg’s Sauber.

Verstappen finished the session all the way back in 14th position amid further balance complaints – the stewards also summoning him after a peculiar incident at Turn 3, where the Dutchman slowed his Red Bull to a crawling pace and appeared to throw a towel out of the cockpit.

Next up was Liam Lawson in the second Racing Bulls machine, taking 15th over Williams duo Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon and Sauber man Bortoleto, with Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Colapinto bringing up the rear of a field covered by 1.5 seconds.

Drivers and teams will now regroup in the Hungaroring paddock to dig through the data and prepare for Saturday’s running – FP3 due to begin at 1230 local time and the all-important Qualifying session following at 1600.