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)