Ferrari Turn Up the Heat: Hamilton Heads a One-Two as Colapinto’s Crash Stops Friday’s Second Session

Lewis Hamilton’s 1:18.729 led Charles Leclerc in a commanding Ferrari one-two under the Budapest sun, in an hour interrupted by Franco Colapinto’s backwards meeting with the final-corner barriers — and deprived of Lance Stroll, whose upgraded Aston Martin never made it out of the garage.

If first practice was Ferrari’s statement of intent, second practice was the underlining. Lewis Hamilton topped the Friday evening session at the Hungaroring with a 1:18.729, a tenth and a half clear of team-mate Charles Leclerc, with Lando Norris’s McLaren the best of the rest half a second adrift. Around them, the hour offered a little of everything: a red flag for Franco Colapinto’s crash at the final corner, a no-show from Lance Stroll’s battered Aston Martin, a strangely muted Kimi Antonelli, and late race-trim skirmishes that suggested Sunday might not be the procession this circuit’s reputation threatens. Here is everything that happened in the day’s most representative running.

The full classification

Hamilton’s benchmark came on his second soft-tyre run, and it withstood everything thrown at it. Norris slotting into third confirmed McLaren’s quiet recovery from an anonymous morning, while Max Verstappen, fourth and nearly seven-tenths away, spent much of the session wrestling his Red Bull’s balance and his own seating position. Twenty-one drivers set a time; Stroll did not run at all.

Colapinto’s crash and the red flag

The session’s only stoppage arrived just as the soft-tyre qualifying simulations were reaching their peak. Colapinto lost the rear of his Alpine through the final corner, spun, and slid backwards into the barriers — bringing out the red flag and ending his afternoon with just 11 laps on the board. The Argentinian climbed out unharmed, but Alpine face a long evening of repairs, and he has lost the long-run data that everyone else banked.

The timing was cruel for others, too. Norris was around two-tenths up on his best lap when the flags flew, while Gasly and Piastri also had to abandon their soft-tyre attempts. When the track went green roughly six minutes later, the field funnelled straight into race-simulation mode — meaning several of Friday’s gaps flatter or punish drivers whose one clean shot at a flying lap never came.

Ferrari mean business — and Mercedes know it

There is a number hanging over this weekend that explains the significance of Ferrari’s day: Mercedes have taken pole position at all ten races so far this season. On a circuit that neutralises the Silver Arrows’ power advantage, that streak has never looked more fragile. Leclerc was fastest in the morning; Hamilton was fastest in the afternoon; and the pair’s long-run pace in the closing phase looked every bit as composed as their one-lap speed. The Scuderia’s morning fright — Leclerc’s late stoppage at pit entry — proved to be a footnote rather than a warning.

Mercedes’ day, by contrast, was a study in discomfort. Russell, fifth, radioed early on that the car felt “horrible” and unbalanced, and remained the better part of a second from the front. Antonelli’s afternoon was scrappier still: a huge lock-up at Turn 2, a zigzagging excursion at the Turn 6–7 chicane, and a report that he had nearly spun twice — though the championship leader’s 13th place comes with an asterisk. His one soft-tyre attempt was aborted because of the red flag, and his programme was heavily skewed towards Sunday’s race on medium tyres. Nobody at Brackley will panic over a Friday timesheet — but nobody there expected to spend one staring up at a Ferrari one-two, either.

Verstappen’s eventful evening — and a reprieve

Verstappen’s session was never quiet. He complained his seating position left him too reclined, grumbled about rear locking, reported a front-wing issue over the radio — and still ended the evening in the thick of the entertainment, diving past Hamilton at Turn 1 during the race runs in a playful exchange that also saw Leclerc sweep around Russell at Turn 2. Overtaking, it seems, is not entirely forbidden here.

The Dutchman also received the best news of his day away from the cockpit: the stewards elected to take no action over the alleged erratic driving that had hung over him since first practice. Fourth on the timesheet, seven-tenths down and clear of punishment — Red Bull’s evening could have been considerably worse.

Aston Martin: from red flag to no-show

The cruellest storyline of the day belonged to Aston Martin. Stroll, whose AMR26B suffered a suspected rear suspension failure in the morning, was ruled out of the second session entirely — the damage could not be repaired in time, with the team set to fly in parts to salvage the remainder of the weekend. The car billed as the team’s season-defining gamble has so far completed 11 installation-heavy laps and broken twice’s worth of hearts.

Alonso at least offered a flicker of encouragement in the other car, running as high as 14th before a track-limits deletion sent him back down the order; he finished 19th, but within three seconds of Hamilton — a margin that, by this team’s bleak 2026 standards, counts as progress.

The midfield squeezes tighter

Behind the leading quartet, the fight for Q3 looks ferocious. Hadjar recovered from an early moment across the finish line to take sixth, while Racing Bulls planted both cars in the top ten — Lawson seventh, Lindblad tenth — to keep their noses in front in the scrap for sixth in the constructors’ championship. Audi’s consistency continued with Hülkenberg ninth and Bortoleto 11th, and Ocon’s 12th place left him the more content of the Haas drivers on a day when Bearman could only manage 15th.

Williams’ difficult day deepened the sense of a team out of sorts at this circuit: Albon, bouncing through the second-sector chicane, was 16th, with Sainz 17th. Cadillac’s pair bookended the Aston Martins, Bottas — briefly the beneficiary of a handy Mercedes tow — 18th ahead of Pérez, while Gasly’s 14th came with an alarming radio message about a car that felt “extremely bad… like it’s broken in Turn 12.”

What’s next

Final practice runs on Saturday at 12:30 local before qualifying at 16:00 — the session that will tell us whether Ferrari can end Mercedes’ perfect pole record — and Sunday’s Grand Prix starts at 15:00. Here is the schedule across the globe (session start times; Budapest shares a time zone with Paris):

Friday began with Leclerc on top and ended with Hamilton on top. In between came a broken Aston Martin, a crashed Alpine, a Mercedes team searching for balance and a champion-elect quietly banking race data. Budapest has set its trap beautifully: Ferrari look fastest, but the only session that matters here is the one that decides who starts at the front on a track where passing is a rumour. Saturday cannot come soon enough.