LEWIS HAMILTON is braced for a tough weekend after he finished a distant 11th in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
As Charles Leclerc attempted to put his catastrophic crash in France behind him by racing to the top of the timesheets, Hamilton ended the day 1.1 seconds adrift of the Ferrari driver.
On an encouraging afternoon for McLaren, Britain’s Lando Norris took second with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third and world champion Max Verstappen fourth.
Mercedes secured their best result of a painful season at last weekend’s French Grand Prix, with Hamilton second and team-mate George Russell third.
But the silver cars were off the pace at a scorching hot Hungaroring – the venue for Formula One’s final race before the summer break – with both drivers complaining.
“How far off are we?” asked Hamilton, after completing his opening lap on the medium rubber.
“So, currently, P8, 1.9 sec to Leclerc in P1,” replied his race engineer, Peter Bonnington.
“1.9 to the same tyre?” was Hamilton’s disbelieving response.
Later, Hamilton called his machine “unstable” after he ran off the asphalt at Turn 4.
Hamilton has won a record eight times at the Hungaroring, but the British driver is facing an improbable task of adding to that tally considering Mercedes’ problems here.
“The car has been a bit of a struggle today,” he said. “It is crazy how it swings so much from track to track. But we have to try and figure out how we can get the car working.
“At the moment, it is a little bit loose and it is not doing what we want it to do so it has been a difficult day.
“Nothing has changed on the car since last week. I am the same driver this week as I was then, but for some reason, it is not working as well at this track.
“It is going to be a tough weekend, that is for sure, but we will give it everything and see what we have got.”
Russell, who finished in eighth, was equally frustrated.
He yelled: “What the hell is going on at Turn 1? I just can’t get round the first corner without locking up.”
Leclerc locked himself away in his Monaco apartment after the accident at Circuit Paul Ricard which leaves his championship hopes hanging by a thread.
The Monegasque heads into the 13th round of 22 with a 63-point deficit to Verstappen – the equivalent of two-and-a-half wins – but he will take some comfort from leading the way on Friday.
The surprise practice package was Norris in his McLaren. The British team introduced a radically revised car at the last round, and, after he qualified fifth and finished seventh in France, Norris delivered another strong display on Friday.
The 22-year-old finished just two tenths back from Leclerc, ahead of Sainz and Verstappen, with his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo fifth.
On the occasion of his 41st birthday, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso took sixth, one place ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who on Thursday announced he will be retiring from the sport at the end of the year.
After winning the Monaco Grand Prix in May, Sergio Perez has struggled for performance and the Mexican was half a second adrift of Red Bull team-mate Verstappen in ninth.
The Hungaroring, 16 miles north of Budapest, has bathed in 30-plus degree heat this week. But rain is expected to disrupt qualifying on Saturday afternoon, and there is the possibility of a jumbled grid for Sunday’s 70-lap Grand Prix.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here