Carlos Sainz is the opening car to put down a time on the soft compound. The Spaniard's marker is good enough for third spot, but that quickly becomes fourth, as Lance Stroll crosses the line on his red run to go top of the timesheets. The time to beat is a 1:16.221.

Lewis Hamilton is on the medium compound and down in ninth place, over ninth tenths away from Lando Norris' quickest marker. The seven-time world champion needs the safety of the run-off area on his final yellow lap after a slight twitch, but he does avoid flat-spotting his tyres.

The soft tyres are ready to make an appearance...

Behind the top three of Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc we've got Kimi Antonelli, who will be much happier sitting in fourth place. Mercedes are running a previous spec of rear suspension in Hungary and Italian Antonelli hopes it can bring him a better result in qualifying, after he was knocked out in both SQ1 in the sprint and the first part of main qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.

This feels like another McLaren versus McLaren weekend. Lando Norris is back on top with a time of 1:16.525 on the mediums, edging his team-mate Oscar Piastri by 0.172 seconds.

Is Charles Leclerc the bet for the final podium place? At the moment, yes. The Ferrari driver doesn't move up the order following his latest lap, but he is third on the timesheets behind the two papaya cars.

Here comes Oscar Piastri. The Belgian Grand Prix winner picked up his sixth victory of the season last weekend thanks to his confident overtake at the start and solid tyre management until the end. The Australian is next to cross the line on his latest medium run and he goes 0.219 seconds quicker than team-mate Lando Norris.

Over at Red Bull, Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen both have the same problem. "The balance is so messy," says Japanese driver Tsunoda, quickly echoed by four-time world champion Verstappen.

Sam Bird
Formula E driver on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

I'm pretty sure Tsunoda is on thin ice. Hadjar has been a revelation this year but will that second seat swallow him up as well?

Lando Norris leads the way on the medium compound from Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and the Mercedes of George Russell. Briton Russell has just been on the end of a spot impeding while trying to let the Haas of Ollie Bearman by, the downfall of trying to find space on this karting-like circuit.

Franco Colapinto kicks up a load of gravel in the Alpine, causing the Argentine driver to radio in to say check the floor. The 22-year-old is yet to score a point since he replaced Jack Doohan at the French team, so he definitely needs some good luck this wekend.

Oscar Piastri is pushing, maybe too much, as the Australian goes wide in the McLaren and takes a snap over the kerb. His team-mate Lando Norris, meanwhile, completes a far smoother lap to go top with 1:16.916 on the mediums.

The two Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso are running medium tyres first, the only outliers at this stage are the Haas boys, who opt for the hards. George Russell goes quickest on the yellow compound with a 1:17.442 ahead of the racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar.

The tyres chosen by Pirelli for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix are the C3 as the hard, C4 as the medium and C5 as the soft. But if you really want to get ahead, the Italian supplier has released the compound selections for all 10 races after the summer break.

The Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, which takes place at the end of August, will be a step softer than last year's event, while the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in November will be a harder affair, with the same trio of compounds - C2, C3 and C4 - as the 2023 race.

Image source, Pirelli 2025

Nico Hulkenberg is the first man to head out in the Sauber. But over at Mercedes, the mechanics are tinkering with Kimi Antonelli's car. The Silver Arrows have been trying to solve the mystery of why they have dropped off slightly in performance in recent races, so the teenager watches on patiently as his team get to work.

How will Fernando's back hold up? We'll find out shortly.

Second practice is green.

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2

The 5 Live team are back with is for second practice, so click the 'listen live' tab at the top of the page to tune in.

Welcome back to Steve Crossman, Jennie Gow, Harry Benjamin, Formula E driver Sam Bird and F1 correspondent Andrew Benson.

Sunday's forecast predicts light showers and a gentle breeze in the build up to the 70-lap Hungarian Grand Prix but the rain should be gone by the race start at 3pm local time.

On Saturday, the skies should stay dry for qualifying with a high of 30C, making it a warm and toasty fight for pole position.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent at the Hungaroring

Image source, Getty Images

The session was relatively incident-free, despite Felipe Drugovich and Williams' Carlos Sainz running wide at the first corner after locking their front brakes.

Mercedes have reverted to an older rear suspension set-up for this weekend in an attempt to isolate where their car has lost performance in the last few races.

The belief is that the newer suspension design, which featured a higher degree of anti-lift in an attempt to keep the aerodynamic platform more stable, might have induced other issues into the car's behaviour on corner entry.

Image source, Getty Images

Nope! Aston Martin have confirmed Fernando Alonso will return to the car this afternoon.

In a statement, the team said: "[Alonso] chose to sit out the opening practice session to limit his time in the car as he manages a muscular injury in his back.

"Having undergone further treatment this morning and medically cleared by the FIA, Fernando will be back in the AMR25 alongside Lance."

Reserve driver Felipe Drugovich gathered vital data in first practice in Alonso's absence.

Image source, Getty Images

Hello again, folks. Hopefully we're all fed, watered and ready for another hour of running around the 4.381km Hungaroring circuit.

Second practice gets under way at 16:00 BST.

McLaren were one and two in first practice with Lando Norris leading team-mate Oscar Piastri by just 0.019 seconds. Charles Leclerc was just behind in third, closer than the rest, but still two tenths away from Norris' top marker.

Nico Hulkenberg is back with us over at Sauber after rookie Paul Aron took part in FP1. But the burning question in Budapest involves Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard sat out of today's earlier session due to a back injury. Could this jeopardise his whole weekend?

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent at the Hungaroring

Image source, Getty Images

Lando Norris headed team-mate Oscar Piastri to a McLaren one-two in first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Norris was 0.019 seconds quicker than the Australian, who leads the Briton by 16 points in the world championship heading into the last race before Formula 1's summer break.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was third fastest, 0.217secs off the pace, and split from team-mate Lewis Hamilton by Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar.

Haas driver Oliver Bearman was sixth fastest, ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll.

Read the full report here

The McLarens are setting the pace once again with Lando Norris fractionally quicker than Oscar Piastri. But Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari are right up there. The Monegasque driver was only 0.217 seconds off the pace of Briton Norris - much closer than the rest of the pack.

We'll pull into the pits now and stop for a break. Come back and join us for second practice from 15:45 BST. Lights go green at 4pm.

See you shortly!

Post-practice radio messages reveal Yuki Tsunoda's struggles with grip - the poor fella is limited all over the Hungarian circuit - and Felipe Drugovich apologising for flat-spotting his tyres during the session after a lock-up. No problem at all, say Aston Martin, and they thank the Brazilian for stepping in for the injured Fernando Alonso.