Max Verstappen set the early pace but only just ahead of Valtteri Bottas in Practice 1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
On a blazing hot Friday in Budapest, the Red Bull driver was among the last to do an initial soft tyre run – after a mid-session red flag – and would set a 1m17.555s.
That would put Verstappen 0.061s clear of Bottas, who was among the first to go out on the red-striped compound, with Lewis Hamilton a further tenth back in third for Mercedes.
The aforementioned red flag would be caused by Yuki Tsunoda spinning and hitting the barrier backwards at Turn 4, this was after the AlphaTauri driver had also rotated earlier in the session at Turn 9.
Yuki Tsunoda is off at Turn 4, and he crashes backwards into the wall
The session has been red flagged so that his car can be recovered and the barriers can be repaired#HungarianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/u5KvDd7DWi
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 30, 2021
With a gusty wind seemingly causing problems, Fernando Alonso also spun at Turn 4 but continued while Mick Schumacher just saved his Haas from the same fate as Tsunoda.
In Hamilton’s case, however, understeer was the main issue as the seven-time world champion struggled to match his teammate.
Ferrari is seen as a dark horse for this weekend and Carlos Sainz proved that in fourth, fractionally ahead of Pierre Gasly.
Despite his spin, the newly-turned 40-year-old Alonso was sixth, 0.006s clear of Charles Leclerc.
Sergio Perez was eighth in the second Red Bull with Lando Norris ninth and Lance Stroll rounding out the top 10 for Aston Martin.
Double trouble, #SV5 heads back out as well. ? #HungarianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/KXIMSewSS5
— Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) July 30, 2021
Down the field, Sebastian Vettel was 13th and Daniel Ricciardo 14th. George Russell, who hopes for a third straight Q3 appearance this weekend, was 15th.
Schumacher was 17th ahead of Robert Kubica, as the Alfa Romeo reserve driver made his latest FP1 appearance.
The Pole also did much of the grunt work for the Swiss team as Antonio Giovinazzi managed just five laps with an unconfirmed problem.
Full results from Practice 1 can be seen below:
Here’s how we got our Budapest weekend started…#HungarianGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/MNvMQzefyE
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 30, 2021