Verstappen pips Bottas to set the pace in Hungarian GP practice

Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix, beating Valtteri Bottas and championship rival Lewis Hamilton at the Hungaroring. It was the Dutch driver's first on-track action since his major accident at the British GP and he showed no signs of being off form on Friday morning.

Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by eight points in the Drivers' Standings, set a 1:17.555 to go 0.061 seconds faster than Bottas on the soft tyres. Hamilton was a further 0.106 seconds back, complaining of understeer in his Mercedes as track temperatures hit 58 degrees celcius.

Ferrari were expected to threaten the top two teams coming into the weekend and Carlos Sainz gave more evidence for that case in fourth place.

Pierre Gasly showed strong one lap pace in his AlphaTauri's in fifth, ahead of Fernando Alonso who had a spin at Turn 4 early in the session.

Yuki Tsunoda brought out a red flag when he crashed at the same corner as Alonso, going into the barriers rearwards with 20 minutes to go but still ended the morning in 12th place.

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Aston Martin had a solid morning with Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel going into ninth and 12th respectively by using a fresh set of soft tyres following the stoppage.

Sergio Perez struggled throughout the session, 0.911 seconds behind Verstappen on the same C4 soft tyre compound.

Robert Kubica took Kimi Raikkonen's seat at Alfa Romeo for the opening practice session and was 18th to split Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin with Antonio Gioviazzzi bringing up the rear of the field on a hot morning at the Hungaroring.

The action in Budapest resumes at 14:00 (UK time) as second practice for the Hungarian GP gets underway.