Max Verstappen tops Hungarian GP FP1 as Tsunoda crashes

Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen laid down the early benchmark by topping the timesheets in opening practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Yuki Tsunoda caused a red flag.

Two weeks on from his dramatic, race-ending collision with title rival Lewis Hamilton at the British GP, the Red Bull driver set the pace in first practice on the soft tyres, lapping the Hungaroring in 1m17.555s.

Verstappen’s time put him just 0.061s clear of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas at the end of FP1, while Hamilton was third, 0.167s adrift of his main championship rival who holds an eight point advantage heading into the last race before F1’s summer break.

The 60-minute practice session was interrupted when AlphaTauri rookie Tsunoda lost control of his car and spun rearwards into the barriers at Turn 4, causing a brief suspension.

Carlos Sainz was half a second down on Verstappen’s benchmark as he finished fourth-fastest for Ferrari, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.

A day after celebrating his 40th birthday, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso took sixth for Alpine, having outpaced the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc by just 0.006s.

Sergio Perez was nearly a full second slower than his Red Bull teammate in eighth, while Lando Norris and Lance Stroll completed the rest of the top-10 for McLaren and Aston Martin respectively.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon missed out on a spot in the top 10 by just 0.010s as Tsunoda’s session-ending crash left him 12th in the FP1 order.

Further down the timesheets, Robert Kubica finished 18th in his third FP1 outing of the season for Alfa Romeo.

The Pole, who deputised for Kimi Raikkonen on Friday morning, ended up faster than Nikita Mazepin’s Haas and Antonio Giovinazzi in the other Alfa Romeo.

2021 F1 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX – FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (1)

POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1m17.555s
2	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m17.616s
3	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m17.722s
4	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m18.115s
5	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m18.181s
6	Fernando Alonso	CHI	Alpine F1 Team	1m18.385s
7	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1m18.391s
8	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1m18.466s
9	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m18.649s
10	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1m18.755s
11	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1m18.765s
12	Yuki Tsunoda	JPN	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m18.770s
13	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1m18.989s
14	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1m19.265s
15	George Russell	ISR	Williams Racing	1m19.724s
16	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m19.824s
17	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m20.383s
18	Robert Kubica	POL	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m20.639s
19	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1m20.992s
20	Antonio Giovinazzi	GBR	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m21.889s