2026 Formula 1 Hungarian GP
F1 Hungarian GP live commentary and updates - FP1
Follow along for live updates from Formula 1's opening practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix
Live Standings
Live Text
And this is where we'll close out for now - we'll be back for FP2, where we should get a bit more of an indication of race pace for this round.
Catch you then!
And there's the chequered flag - so Leclerc finishes this session on top, 0.484s clear of Verstappen and 0.543s clear of Hamilton.
Hadjar, Russell, Bortoleto, Vesti, Hulkenberg, Lindblad and Lawson complete the top 10.
A bit of flow-vis around the rear part of Norris' floor, as McLaren tries to do a bit of final aero assessment.
Vesti is currently top rookie driver, 0.4s off Russell's effort earlier on.
Leclerc is being wheeled back into the box now, as the car decided to conk out. It's all very Leclerc-coded, isn't it - top of the pile by almost half a second, but has a technical issue to overcome.
Quite a big field spread here too, as a lot of drivers haven't really had an opportunity to do a 'representative' time.
Hamilton has the Ferrari actuator winglet on, looks like it's fully compatible with the Macarena wing so he's got the best of both worlds here.
A bit of a messy session here, a lot of laps going begging with lock-ups, slides, traffic, red flags, wind, etc.
Leclerc's crawling into the pits with something broken.
Fornaroli gets a lap in, but those tyres were shot to pieces after that lock-up. Sainz does likewise ahead of him, as he careens into the run-off under a big cloud of smoke. Car hits the bump, it gets unsettled, and you lose the front-end grip.
Aron was in Sainz's way during the middle sector, so the Spaniard has aborted his lap.
Alonso sets a 1m21.550s, which is quite encouraging. Fornaroli had a Turn 1 lock-up, while Vesti has got up to seventh with his first soft-tyre lap.
And we're back! Fornaroli's got an opportunity to do a soft-tyre run now., as has Sainz as he's had some fixes to his Williams.
Alonso will also show what the Aston Martin can do on softs.
Hamilton offers further feedback on the gearshifts, which he hopes can be sorted out in this slight hiatus.
He's half a second down on Leclerc as it stands, so clearly not too pleased with his set-up.
Both Audis looking good, sitting sixth and seventh - it's known that the R26 chassis is pretty good, and the Hungaroring is a chassis circuit...
Yikes; Stroll left Turn 2 and the rear just seemed to snap on him. The wheel was out of alignment, which looks consistent with a trackrod failure. Let's see what the post-mortem says.
Stroll appears to have come to a stop out of Turn 3. Suspension failure, apparently...which isn't great.
Red flag.
Norris gets a lap in on the softs but it's only worth eighth place - he had the best out of them on the previous attempt.
Big lap from Leclerc though, and does a 1m19.075s to go fastest.
Lindblad and Lawson hit the top six with their soft-tyre runs. Aron goes wide at the final corner, and hits the same problem as Hamilton did earlier; the rear end tried to escape his control.
Russell goes top with a 1m20.066s, while Norris has backed out of his lap after going too wide at Turn 11.
Verstappen then throws down a 1m19.559s to find even more time. Crikey.
Russell's left the garage on a set of softs now, so he's wanting to check out the balance of the car on a hot lap while it's quiet. Verstappen, Norris, and Ocon are following suit.
"The car feels pretty bad," Hamilton says, not enjoying the ride of the car. He reports the roll stiffness is too high, so he's struggling to get on top of it.
Bortoleto's up to fifth now, while Fornaroli is seen rescuing a couple of snaps in the final sector. The McLaren looked very twitchy, while Albon's Williams couldn't help but lock up into Turn 1.
Lawson is up to fifth, with Hulkenberg sixth; Lindblad sits ahead of the McLarens, with Bortoleto also in the top 10.
Plenty of track evolution to come, however, as the grime and dust gets lifted with each lap.
Leclerc goes fastest once more, with a 1m20.287s, while Verstappen does another lap but 0.5s shy of the Ferrari.
Hamilton then goes up to second, 0.3s off Leclerc.
Norris does another lap to move ahead of Fornaroli, but only by a tenth. Leclerc and Hamilton get a bit close for comfort, as Hamilton moves up to third.
Verstappen is also noted for apparently driving erratically.
Hulkenberg moves up to seventh with his first proper timed lap of the season.
Sainz has been noted for "driving erratically", presumably for that incident with Verstappen.
Verstappen reports bad downshifts and front-axle jumping, which is par for the course, while Fornaroli improves to stay fourth.
Yeah, the off-line part of the last corner looked incredibly dusty - so, rally-driving for Hamilton there.
Verstappen gets a clean run and posts a 1m20.788s to go fastest.
Sainz reports that he had no radio, with a disconnected cable.
Hamilton sets two purple sectors, but his car just decides that it's not going to stick to the road and he's see-sawing through the final corner to keep it on the road.
Leclerc does a 1m20.884s in the meantime to go top once more.
Russell posts a 1m22.056s to now sit top of the order, while Verstappen backs out of a lap and seems to have had some contretemps with Sainz and Bortoleto there...
...ah , Sainz was slow in the corner when Verstappen was attempting to get through, and the Red Bull driver didn't care for that.
Leclerc posts a 1m22.705s with that straight-mode-less wing, going 1.5s clear of Alpine's Paul Aron.
Stroll goes third with his updated Aston, a tenth or so clear of Alonso, on the hard tyre.
Lawson then moves up to second - he's got the updated Racing Bulls this weekend.
FP1 is now underway! Hirakawa is first on the road.
McLaren is testing its McMacarena wing in this session, to see if it's worth the development that it's put into the design.
Ferrari, meanwhile, has taken the SLM off one car to test the little winglets to see if it's worth forgoing the straight-line speed boost for more downforce.
Just a couple of minutes to go...
There's already a couple of drivers sitting at the pitlane exit, aiming to get some early miles on the board.
Plenty of updates around the grid to get used some data on too, particularly this heavily revised Aston Martin.
Which rookies are in for FP1?
McLaren: Fornaroli in for Piastri
Mercedes: Vesti in for Antonelli
Alpine: Aron in for Colapinto
Haas: Hirakawa in for Bearman
Cadillac: Herta in for Bottas
Leonardo Fornaroli, McLaren, Will Joseph, Director of Race Engineering, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Who else has updates for Hungary?
McLaren has a new rear wing, floor, and changes to the brake duct furniture both front and rear.
Mercedes has a small complement of circuit-specific changes to contend with Hungary's hot and high-downforce nature.
Red Bull has modified its diffuser and rear wing, while Ferrari also has a revised rear wing package.
Red Bull car tech detail
Photo by: Ronald Vording
Williams has updated its floor and rear wing with Hungary-specific additions.
Racing Bulls has kitted out both cars with its new updates, featuring the squarer rollhoop with added winglets.
Racing Bulls car tech detail
Photo by: Oleg Karpov
Haas has reworked its rear wing actuator fairing to add a smidgen of downforce.
Audi will run with a new rear-wing endplate, while Cadillac has improved its brake ducts for Hungary's low-speed elements.
Aston Martin's upgrades, and understanding F1's update document
No doubt you'll have seen screenshots of the FIA document displaying the presentation document, with 16 different parts registered as updates. In truth, it'll be a lot more as many of the components have had to be changed internally to fit the new aero parts.
So if someone's quoting "16 upgrades" at you, you have permission to say "well, actually..."
Click the link in the post below to see them!
Aston Martin updates break cover!
After 10 rounds of circling the back of the grid, Aston Martin now has a surfeit of updates to show off. We've been at them with the (virtual) highlighter to show you what's new.
F1 Hungarian GP practice coming up!
Hello everyone, nice to see you again! It's been what, oh, just under a week? The F1 train has one more stop before it goes out of service for a few weeks: the Hungaroring, just northeast of Budapest.
Always a fun one, and it feels traditional to have Hungary on the calendar as the pre-summer amuse-bouche. Excuse the photo below, it did rain yesterday...
General view
Photo by: Sona Maleterova / Getty Images
