Piastri Faces Setbacks in Hungarian Practice

Norris seeks improvements for McLaren, while Piastri grapples with practice hurdles at the Hungaroring.

Lando Norris seeks to enhance the comfort of his McLaren F1, striving for consistent performance at the limit throughout the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, despite posting the fastest time in the second free practice session.

Friday’s practice sessions witnessed Ferrari taking the lead in the first session before Norris set the pace in the second, edging out Max Verstappen by nearly a quarter of a second.

Although Norris enjoys a solid single-lap pace advantage, he notes that the car remains somewhat unpredictable, and he is keen to find settings that offer more consistency over longer runs.

“We have the speed in the car; it’s just about delivering it when needed. When you can have a fast and easy-to-drive car, that’s the ideal world. But more often, you have a fast car that’s a bit on the edge and slightly more challenging to handle.”

“It’s somewhat about playing with the balance and finding where you want to be. A lot depends on the driver’s preferences. I felt quite comfortable today, but I would certainly have liked a bit more ease to do more than just one fast lap a day without taking too much risk.”

Temperatures at the Hungaroring have hovered around 32°C throughout the weekend so far and are expected to remain similar on Saturday and Sunday. However, Norris believes the race day will pose more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

“Sunday will be the challenge for all of us. Staying hydrated is crucial. It’s mentally draining, mentally challenging.”

“It’s not the most physically demanding – normally, it is quite physical here, but not for some reason this weekend. Sweating, losing energy, and avoiding mistakes will be the biggest challenges for us.”

Friday proved more challenging for Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, who lost time with a problem at the start of the first session, and then further time in the second session after sustaining damage to the floor. This led Piastri to describe a “mixed day” at the Hungaroring, having secured 7th and 13th places in the two sessions.

“I think the first session went rather well, apart from the small reliability issue we had initially. In the second session, we just need to understand what happened because something was clearly not right. We just need to go through it and hopefully, we’ll come back tomorrow somewhere among the leaders.”

“I’m not worried, the first session wasn’t a problem. After that, I think for the second session, we probably need to understand what made the situation so challenging.”

“We looked competitive in the first session, Lando looked competitive in the second session, and I hope we can both get back to the top tomorrow.”