Charles Leclerc finished fastest as race pace proved the focus of Practice 2 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
After the first session was washed out by rain, teams wasted no time to complete some dry running at the Hungaroring.
The two Williams drivers set the pace initially as the only cars to run soft tyres while most focused on the mediums.
It’s a Williams 1-2 as things stand in FP2 thus far! ??
Alex Albon in P1, and team mate Sargeant right behind him ?#HungarianGP #F1 @WilliamsRacing pic.twitter.com/yD7gdTRXJE
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 21, 2023
Red Bull waited until some rubber had been laid down before heading out with Sergio Perez looking to recover from his crash in FP1.
But it was not a smooth session again for the Mexican, who finished 18th and only managed 13 laps after a big lock-up at Turn 1 flat-spotted his front-right tyre.
In contrast, teammate Max Verstappen immediately jumped up to second with his first flying lap, though would drop down to 11th by the chequered flag after not doing a low fuel run.
Leclerc would do, however, setting a best time of 1m17.686s, pipping second-placed Lando Norris by just 0.015s.
Pierre Gasly sat in third with Yuki Tsunoda an impressive fourth, 0.45s faster than new teammate Daniel Ricciardo in 14th.
Esteban Ocon made it two Alpines in the top five, followed by Nico Hulkenberg in sixth.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were seventh and ninth respectively on the medium tyre, sandwiching Fernando Alonso in eighth.
Carlos Sainz rounded out a top 10 covered by less than half a second for Ferrari.
Verstappen was 11th, ahead of Lance Stroll and Alex Albon in P12 and P13. Kevin Magnussen followed Ricciardo in 15th.
Lewis Hamilton was the top Mercedes in 16th as he and teammate George Russell only used medium tyres and focused on long run pace throughout the session.
Long runs and race pace has been the priority in this session. ? Focus will switch more to Soft tyre running tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ypgtIttdJj
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 21, 2023
Logan Sargeant finished 17th for Williams, in front of Perez and Oscar Piastri, whose session was compromised by floor damage to his McLaren.
The aforementioned Russell completed the timesheet.