The China Mail - Ferrari boss cautious after Hamilton and Leclerc shine in Hungary

The Frenchman warned of tyre problems, lack of data acquisition and too many interruptions during a scrappy session. He predicted all Ferrari's rivals would go faster over the weekend.

It was also clear that Vasseur was satisfied with a strong team performance led by an untouchable lap from Hamilton who is seeking to become the first driver in F1 history to take 10 poles at the same circuit.

"So far, so good," admitted Vasseur. "But it is only Friday and it is a good start, but let's see tomorrow when it can be a different story. Everyone will improve."

He added that it had been difficult for Ferrari to gain understanding of their tyres' performance because red flags, especially in the second free practice, prevented them doing a "proper long run stint".

"It was a messy afternoon with FP2," he said.

Seven-time champion Hamilton set the pace with a best lap in one minute and 18.729 seconds to beat Leclerc by 0.148 seconds, leaving world champion Lando Norris, last year's winner, third for McLaren, but adrift by half a second.

Four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull was fourth and George Russell fifth for Mercedes, but championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who missed FP1 when Mercedes gave his car to test driver Fred Vesti, struggled to 13th.

Verstappen said his car still lacks dependability.

"It was a difficult day," he said. "Difficult to find a good balance in the car. We need to make the car more consistent on a lap and make it work on the long runs as well. So, there's still some work to do for tomorrow."

Russell said he was adapting to changes in the surface.

"It was quite a strange day out there for everybody. Budapest is an amazing track to drive, but with half of the track resurfaced it was super bumpy," the Briton said.

"And a lot of it is breaking up around the last couple of corners, which is making it quite strange to drive on.

"Our single lap didn't look great, but the long run looked more competitive. We feared Ferrari potentially and it seemed to be the case – they looked very, very strong."

Hamilton, who is 45 points behind Antonelli in the title race, said after last Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix that he wanted to intensify Ferrari's efforts and was still aiming to bid this year for his eighth world title.

Hamilton has a career record 104 poles and will hope on Saturday to repeat his last qualifying success, which came in Hungary in 2023, as he seeks a second win for Ferrari this year ahead of F1's summer break.

Victory would be Hamilton's ninth in Hungary, equalling his own Silverstone record for most by one driver at one track.

L.Kwan--ThChM