Scuderia Ferrari HP completed a busy and productive Friday at the Hungaroring, with the initially very dirty track evolving significantly throughout the day.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc finished both sessions at the top of the timesheet, but the competition is closer than the times would suggest, and there is still work to do to be fully prepared for tomorrow's qualifying session.

In the first session both SF-26s started on Medium tyres gathering data before switching to the Soft compound for qualifying simulation runs. Charles posted a 1'19"075, while Lewis was third with a 1'19"618. A few minutes before the end of the session, the Monegasque driver's car suffered a mechanical issue that forced him to return to the garage after completing 19 laps, while Hamilton completed a Medium tyre long run, bringing his tally to 23 and the team's total to 42.

In the session that began at 17:00 once again, both SF-26s started on Medium tyres before switching to Softs on which both drivers set their fastest laps, Leclerc recording a 1'18"877, while Hamilton posted a 1'18"914 before improving to a 1'18"729, the fastest time of the day, ahead of his team-mate. The focus in the closing stages then shifted to long runs, with Charles on the Soft compound and Lewis on the Mediums. Hamilton completed a total of 26 laps, four fewer than his team-mate. Scuderia Ferrari HP completed a total of 98 laps over the course of the day.

Lewis Hamilton: It was a solid day overall. The conditions were quite challenging, with the wind making things a bit tricky and the track feeling quite bumpy in some places. The car felt better in FP2 and we made some good progress between the sessions, although there are still a few areas we need to improve. We'll go through all the data overnight, keep working on the balance and hopefully find a bit more performance for tomorrow.

Charles Leclerc: Our overall performance seems to be quite good, which is a positive. There is still a long way to go this weekend, so we have to be on it and work hard to make sure we stay on top tomorrow.
It's going to be tight in qualifying. I don't expect us to see the same gap that we saw to our competitors today, so we will have to do a perfect job. If the feeling in the car is there, I'm sure we will have a good one.