Lewis Hamilton outlines Ferrari need as Charles Leclerc makes 'perfect' prediction

Ferrari dominated the opening day of practice at the Hungaroring, but Lewis Hamilton has warned that the SF-26 still requires improvement.

That claim comes from the seven-time F1 drivers' champion despite the Scuderia locking out the top two positions in FP2 with a gap of nearly half a second to the rest of the field.

Hamilton topped the second session with a 1:18.729, finishing one-and-a-half tenths ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc after the Monegasque driver had led the way in FP1.

Max Verstappen split the two Ferraris in the opening session, slotting into second, half a second behind Leclerc, with Hamilton third.

The conditions at the Hungarian Grand Prix were difficult to grapple with on Friday, providing an unpredictable environment for the field, and Hamilton was quick to stress that there is still work to do.

"It was a solid day overall," the 41-year-old said after the second free practice session. "The conditions were quite challenging, with the wind making things a bit tricky and the track feeling quite bumpy in some places.

"The car felt better in FP2, and we made some good progress between the sessions, although there are still a few areas we need to improve.

"We'll go through all the data overnight, keep working on the balance and hopefully find a bit more performance for tomorrow."

Leclerc, meanwhile, struck a more cautious tone and predicted that the margins would close sharply come qualifying. As such, he insisted he and Hamilton will need to be faultless when it comes to the competitive sessions.

"Our overall performance seems to be quite good, which is a positive," the nine-time grand prix winner added.

"There is still a long way to go this weekend, so we have to be on it and work hard to make sure we stay on top tomorrow.

"It's going to be tight in qualifying. I don't expect us to see the same gap that we saw to our competitors today, so we will have to do a perfect job. If the feeling in the car is there, I'm sure we will have a good one."