Charles Leclerc was the fastest man in Budapest on Friday afternoon, as the Monegasque driver topped the timesheets in the second practice session at the Hungaroring, leading the impressive Lando Norris in the McLaren.

Leclerc made a fine start to the session, setting the early pace on the medium tyre with a blistering time of 1m 18.911s, to lead his team mate Carlos Sainz by 0.481s.

And with 20 minutes of running in FP2 gone, the drivers began to file out onto the track on soft tyres and low fuel for the customary Friday afternoon qualifying simulations.

And it was Lando Norris who threw down the early gauntlet, setting the fastest first sector on his way to setting a time of 1m 18.662s. However, the McLaren racer’s time was quickly beaten by Leclerc, who went over two-tenths faster with a time of 1m 18.445s.

Sainz – who abandoned his first soft tyre run attempt – was a fraction further back as he set the third fastest time of the session, ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen in fourth – with the top four covered by just 0.283s.

It was a good day for McLaren, with 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo in fifth, just over two-tenths behind his team mate, with the Alpine of Fernando Alonso – another former winner at the Hungaroring – in sixth.

Fresh from announcing that he will be retiring at the end of the season, Sebastian Vettel, in the updated Aston Martin, was seventh fastest, ahead of George Russell in eighth. Sergio Perez, in the second Red Bull was down in ninth, with the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas rounding out the top 10 in his first session of the day, having been replaced by Robert Kubica in FP1.

Eight-time winner in Budapest Lewis Hamilton was down in 11th – although he did encounter traffic on a faster lap – sandwiched by the two Alfa Romeo drivers, with Zhou Guanyu in 12th