Verstappen fires warning shot as Ferrari rekindle hope

Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc offered up hope that Ferrari has rediscovered its missing form, although it was Max Verstappen who posted an ominous warning for the rest of the field at the end of first practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Since Leclerc's victory on home soil in Monaco at the end of May, Ferrari's performance has fallen off a cliff, notably following the introduction of an upgrade package at the Spanish Grand Prix that made its car worse.

For this race weekend, the Scuderia has introduced a revised floor to its SF-24s, and the first impression is that there appears to be an improvement as Sainz finished the hour-long run in blistering heat with the quickest lap time of 1:18.713s around the tight, twisty Hungaroring circuit.

Team-mate Leclerc finished three-tenths of a second adrift in third, with Verstappen second quickest, 0.276s off the pace in an RB20 sporting an upgrade package for this weekend, one the three-time F1 champion described as "crucial" in the build-up.

Ominously, that lap was set on used softs, suggesting there is considerable margin in hand, albeit with the obvious caveats surrounding FP1 performance.

In contrast, under-pressure team-mate Sergio Perez was without the most dynamic part of the update, notably the sidepods/engine cover, leaving the Mexican 11th quickest, 0.727s back.

The temperatures were the hottest of the year, with the air hitting 31.5 Celsius and the track reaching a searing 59.2 at one stage, naturally eating into tyre wear, particularly on the softs.

Verstappen only uses softs

Opting for an early run on softs, compared to the majority of his rivals on mediums, Verstappen unsurprisingly set the early pace with a lap of 1:20.715s. After a cool down, the three-time F1 champion shaved off nine-tenths of a second to post 1:19.831s.

Verstappen was on course to go even quicker on his third push lap after posting purple times in the first and second sectors, only to lose time in the final sector to fall short of his leading run

Behind the Dutch driver over the early exchanges was Mercedes' George Russell, 0.252s adrift, followed by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

It was not until halfway through the session that Verstappen was usurped as the soft tyres came to the fore, initially by Williams' Alex Albon with a 1:19.794s before Russell blitzed that by over six-tenths of a second, followed by Hamilton, 0.150s adrift.

Norris soon split the Mercedes pair, almost exactly, finishing 0.074s behind Russell, before Ferrari showed their hand for this session as Leclerc, and then Sainz, went quickest, the latter the first to dip below 79 seconds with a lap of 1:18.713s.

When Verstappen resumed his soft-tyre running after a lull, and with track conditions more ideal compared to his earlier laps, the 26-year-old netted his second spot behind Sainz. As mentioned, the good news for Red Bull was that his time was on a used set.

Additionally, Verstappen only used soft tyres throughout the 60-minute session.

Russell ultimately finished fourth followed by Stake's Zhou Guanyu, remarkably so given his car lacks a considerable upgrade package that is on that of team-mate Valtteri's Bottas' car. The Finn finished 1.1s behind the Chinese driver, albeit arguably on different run plans.

Norris and Piastri were then sixth and seventh, followed by the RB of Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll in his Aston Martin and Hamilton.

Like Stake, Stroll was running an old-spec compared to team-mate Fernando Alonso whose AMR24 was carrying a raft of updates. The two-time F1 champion, however, was 13th on the timesheet.

Splitting Perez and Alonso in 12th was RB's Daniel Ricciardo. Albon dropped to 14th after his early pace-setting lap.

Kevin Magnussen, who will leave Haas at the end of the season, bemoaned his car's brakes early on and finished 19th, 1.582s down. Only team-mate Oliver Bearman, standing in for Nico Hulkenberg, and in his fourth FP1 session this year, was slower by just under a tenth to the Dane.