Charles Leclerc, the fastest in the second free practice session of the Hungarian GP

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The Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) assured this Friday that he had a “good feeling” after establishing himself as the fastest in the second round of free practice for the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Leclerc set a time of 1m 17.686s in Budapest, during a second run devoid of the abundant rain that occurred in the first and where drivers and teams executed different strategies under the new tire allocation rules.

The British Lando Norris, from McLaren (0.015) and the French Pierre Gasly, from Alpine (0.232) completed an unprecedented podium, taking into account that neither the two-time champion Max Verstappen (11th) nor the Englishman Lewis Hamilton (16th) appeared. Neither did the Mexican Sergio “Checho” Pérez (18th), who in the first round suffered an oversight that questioned his competence for the second round.

Norris extended his good performance at the British Grand Prix when he finished second, behind Verstappen. “It’s very difficult to interpret today’s free practice. I think it’s something we expected, being the first weekend in this format with this tire allocation, everyone is trying different things, but the feeling was quite good, so this is positive,” Leclerc told the official Formula 1 website.

”I think we have to focus on ourselves. We know where we need to improve the car as there were some corners where I wasn’t so sure. We are very clear about where we need to work and then we will see tomorrow, but I am sure that we can achieve a great result here,” added Leclerc.

The second practice session left Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) fourth, French Esteban Ocon (Alpine) fifth, German Nico Hülkenberg (Haas) sixth, Finnish Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) seventh, Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) eighth, Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) ninth and Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) tenth.

In the first round, the British George Russell (Mercedes) set the pace despite the rain, followed by the Australian Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).

The day of the Hungarian Grand Prix will continue on Saturday with the qualifying tests and on Sunday it will be the turn of the main race.

Verstappen, the current two-time champion, leads the standings with 255 points; followed by “Checo” Pérez, with 156; Alonso, with 137; and Hamilton, 121.