(Motorsport) As we have seen so often this season, Ferrari once again were quickest on track, this time at the Final Practice ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. After a disastrous crash in France, Leclerc was determined to make amends and posted a time of 1:18.445 at the Hungaroring, followed closely behind by McLaren’s Lando Norris, just 0.2 seconds behind. Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who finished quickest in Final Practice 1 finished third in FP2 while reigning champion Max Verstappen finished in a surprising fourth place, 0.3 seconds behind leader Leclerc.

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo finished in fifth place ahead of Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel. As for Mercedes, the Silver Arrows looked reasonably competitive in FP1 but couldn’t match that performance in FP2 as George Russell finished eighth and Lewis Hamilton 11th. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez also had a disappointing session, finishing in ninth place. The biggest takeaways from the two sessions so far was Ferrari’s clear advantage over Red Bull, despite the two teams being pretty evenly matched in terms of performance so far. 

Seven time World Champion Lewis Hamilton was realistic about his team’s chances in Hungary, saying “The car's a bit of a struggle. It's crazy how much it swings from track to track but yeah, we've just got to figure out how to get it working. At the moment it's a little bit loose and it's not doing what we wanted to do. Nothing's changed on the car since last week and I'm the same driver this week as I was last week. It's just, for some reason on this track it's not working as well. But I think once we got it right. 

“The gap is about the same as last week – around a second. I didn't get to run at the end because I had some damage. I sustained some damage on the floor so after that, it was pretty tricky for the long-run base. It's going to be a tough weekend, that's for sure, but we're going to give it everything,” Hamilton concluded. It can be said that last week’s double podium in France was a bit lucky for Mercedes with Charles Leclerc crashing from pole position and Carlos Sainz beginning the race at the back of the grid. 

This time around, Ferrari will face no penalties and Leclerc would be extremely unlucky to face another crash. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen admitted that the Italian manufacturer had the advantage ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix by saying “It was a bit tricky as expected. Around here trying to find a bit of balance from high to low speed, sometimes it worked a bit better, sometimes a bit tricky. I think Ferrari are a bit ahead of us and I think it will be hard for us to beat that, but overnight we will try to close the gap as much as we can and see what the weather will give us tomorrow. I think in the dry we can't compete and in the rain maybe we can, who knows." 

Also read: Charles Leclerc won’t change driving style despite recent disappointments