McLaren’s Lando Norris outpaced world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull to top the times in Friday’s second free practice session, run in hot conditions, ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Briton, who trails the three-time champion by 84 points in the drivers’ title race, clocked a best time of one minute and 17.788 seconds to beat his friend and rival by 0.243 seconds in a tightly-contested session. Carlos Sainz was third for Ferrari, one-tenth down, ahead of an improving Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, George Russell of Mercedes and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen, who is set to leave the team at the end of the year.

Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, hoping to claim a record-increasing ninth Hungarian victory, was seventh ahead of RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, Alex Albon of Williams and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.

Eight different teams were represented in the top ten, signalling how close the field has become — only Red Bull and Mercedes providing both drivers — and how a tight race is in prospect for Sunday.

The session began with Nico Hulkenberg leading the way in searing heat amid temperatures of 32 celsius (air) and 60 (track), setting the first lap time on mediums before being usurped by Perez in 1:18.568, the Mexican at last finding some pace.

On his first run, Verstappen complained that his brakes were “not working, they’re not biting”. He was fifth and then went second behind his Red Bull team-mate.

After a promising first session, Ferrari’s fortunes dipped when the luckless Leclerc lost control and ran wide at Turn Four, ran over the kerbs and hit the barriers.

“I touched the wall,” he reported, having damaged his car and the advertising hoardings.

The session was red-flagged for 14 minutes before resuming.

For Mercedes, it was also a troubled day following technology problems arising from partner Crowdstrike’s global IT glitch which had resulted in them working with blank screens on the pit-wall during opening practice.

Russell and Hamilton were first out on the re-start with the leading contenders all taking softs for some qualifying simulation runs.

Russell clocked 1:18.294 to go top ahead of Hamilton by 0.069 seconds before Norris took over in 1:17.788, four-tenths clear of Sainz who had set the pace for Ferrari in the opening session until Verstappen slotted into second.

After this flurry of action, most returned to mediums for race preparation while Piastri returned to McLaren for repairs to the floor of his car, his second lengthy absence of the day.

In this period, Perez showed he was back on form in race trim, making it important for him to recover some pure pace in qualifying on Saturday.

“I think this was Sergio’s best Friday performance since China,” said Red Bull team chief Christian Horner.

945 days. 56 Grand Prix races. For a man who had won in every season of Formula 1 till then to have to wait for so long for another win seems beyond belief. But Sir Lewis Hamilton – the most successful driver in the history of his sport – had to wait that long. Through spells of agony, self-doubt and crushed glimmers of hope. But when it came, it came in the best way possible. Lewis Hamilton claimed his 104th F1 win at his home British Grand Prix on Sunday.

The win was, by all means, a fairytale. On a track no one drives quite like he does. In front of a colosseum of fans adorned in his masks and race number ’44’. He had won in Silverstone a record eight times before – including perhaps one of Formula 1’s greatest-ever drives in 2008 – but his ninth win, in 2024, is perhaps the most special.

“I can’t stop crying,” said Hamilton in the post-race interview. “Since 2021, every day getting up, trying to fight, to train, to put my mind to the task and work as hard as I can,” Hamilton tried to reason.

He didn’t need to. After having a championship taken away from him in heartbreaking circumstances at the end of 2021, Hamilton never got a chance to fight back as Mercedes fell down the pecking order.

Too many times, he had had his ability questioned. Sunday allowed Lewis Hamilton to release years of pent-up emotion: from needing a result for the effort he put, to being able to prove, to himself, that he has still got it. Oh boy, has he still got it.

On Sunday, Hamilton rode the ebbs and flows better than anyone else. He overtook teammate and pole-sitter George Russell on track. He then closed the gap to Lando Norris in a faster McLaren through a tricky spell of rain. Blitzed his outlap to overtake Norris after the final pitstops. And when Norris faded, Hamilton stayed strong, taking care of his soft tyres till the end to hold off a fast-charging Max Verstappen.

It wasn’t a win through luck, or in the fastest car; accusations that’ve unfairly been thrown Hamilton’s way in the past. Instead, it was a display of sheer genius. Hamilton was the best driver on Sunday. Period.

Hamilton himself admitted that he rarely cries. But as he teared up inside his car and then went on to have a long embrace with his father, it brought back memories of Turkey 2020.

Turkey 2020 was the race when Hamilton equalled the record for the most championships in Formula 1 history. The fact that this win caused Hamilton to react in a similar manner to that record-breaking race tells you everything about the magnitude, and what it meant to him.

To top it all off, the win came in Silverstone, his home race. The circuit where a part of the track is named after him. It’s the place where the crowd roars loudest for Formula 1’s most popular driver. As an emotional Hamilton jumped over the barriers and waved the Union Jack high, it was hard to not let a tear escape.

“To make him win again, at the British Grand Prix, in his last race for Mercedes here, it’s almost like a little fairytale. You couldn’t have scripted it better,” quipped Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff at the end of the race.

Despite turning 40 next year, Hamilton may still have many more romantic chapters to write as he prepares to don the Ferrari red next season. But he’ll have to do quite something to beat Sunday’s storyline.

McLaren’s Lando Norris (centre) took pole position for the Spanish GP.© AFP