Daniel Ricciardo surprised everyone by setting the fastest time of the first free practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Kimi Räikkönen and Lewis Hamilton were 2nd and 3rd right behind him.
The session started with issues for Vandoorne, whose car spun and switched off, although he was able to restart it. Some minutes later, Grosjean spun as well, but with worse luck, since he hit the wall with the rear of his Haas. That was not the end of trouble for the team from the US, with Giovinazzi, who was replacing Magnussen for this session, causing a red flag after crashing against the tyre barriers.
Ricciardo, who was P3 with the soft compound, set the fastest time in the last minutes of the session with the supersoft, improving the Mercedes drivers’ time. Räikkönen also managed to improve Hamilton‘s time, while Verstappen sneaked ahead of Bottas in P4. Vettel completed the top 6, 1 second slower than the leader’s fastest lap. He was half a second ahead of the McLaren-Honda of Alonso and Vandoorne. The Renaults of Hülkenberg and Palmer completed the top 10.