Mercedes Formula 1 junior George Russell topped the timesheet in a truncated Formula 2 practice session at the Hungaroring after a crash for Russian Time’s Tadasuke Makino.
ART Grand Prix’s Russell, who has claimed the last three F2 pole positions and enters the weekend with a 37 point championship lead, ended up 0.302 seconds ahead of Prema Racing’s Nyck de Vries.
A flurry of personal best times, including Russell’s benchmark 1m28.886s effort, were posted shortly after a long red flag period triggered by Makino crashing at Turn 3.
Entering the flat-out right-hander, the Russian Time driver was unable to turn in. He locked his brakes but ploughed nose-first into the barriers. It is unknown whether the incident was caused by a technical issue.
After recovering the car, marshalls had to complete barrier repairs before the session could be resumed, stretching the red flag delay to 10 minutes in what was a 45-minute practice session.
Sergio Sette Camara was one of the drivers to immediately launch themselves towards the top of the timesheet when the session resumed. The Carlin driver ended up third, less than 0.1s adrift of McLaren F1 junior de Vries.
Meanwhile, Sette Camara’s Carlin team-mate and chief rival to Russell in the F2 standings Lando Norris finished in eighth, 0.592s behind the pacesetter.
Campos Racing’s Luca Ghiotto edged DAMS’s Alexander Albon in fourth and fifth respectively. Albon lost time in the final sector on his lap after encountering traffic.
Ralph Boschung impressed for MP Motorsport in sixth place.
Nirei Fukuzumi, who is currently 19th in the championship standings, finished in seventh. He suffered a near-miss with Alessio Lorandi after the red flag restart, as he had to take to the grass to avoid the Trident rookie who had not seen him passing on the inside during the run to Turn 2.
Artem Markelov, who finished the session in 10th place, was another driver forced to take avoiding action during the session. Campos’ Roy Nissany is under investigation after blocking Markelov on the exit of Turn 1, with the Russian Time driver having to dive to the run-off area to avoid contact.
