McLaren’s Lando Norris set an impressive pace in practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily.
Norris headed Max Verstappen’s upgraded Red Bull by 0.243 seconds, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz third, 0.397secs off the pace.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez was fourth fastest, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, whose team-mate Lewis Hamilton was seventh, behind Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
Leclerc lost control at Turn Four, the fastest corner on the circuit, a snap of oversteer taking him on to the exit kerb, from where he spun into the barrier on the other side of the track.
The Ferrari went into the barriers rear-first before the front-left corner also suffered an impact. The car looked fairly undamaged considering the speed of the accident at a 150mph corner.
Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu nearly had a similar accident shortly after the session restarted following a delay of 16 minutes.
He also spun at Turn Four and as his car skidded down the track towards the hairpin of Turn Five it narrowly avoided collecting Perez’s Red Bull.
Behind Hamilton, RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Williams’ Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso, in an Aston Martin which also features a major upgrade focusing on the floor, rounded out the top 10.
Norris said: “A good first day. Definitely a bit more work to do to be more comfortable. I feel like we have the speed in the car; it’s just being able to deliver it when you need to.
“Felt good today but definitely [would like a] bit more from a comfort side so I can deliver a little bit more than one lap a day.”
The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri was down in 13th place after suffering floor damage.
