F1 Hungarian Grand Prix LIVE: Practice updates and lap times as Ricciardo returns

A bit of a nightmare for Sergio Perez to start the Budapest weekend then!

The Red Bull mechanics will have some work to do to get that car back ready for FP2 later this afternoon.

First practice back underway with around 48 minutes remaining…

Wow! Just five minutes into the session, Sergio Perez has put his Red Bull into the wall!

“I cannot believe this,” Perez says.

“I clipped the grass on braking, I just lost it!”

He lost it at turn 5! As if he wasn’t under pressure enough after Ricciardo’s return!

We’re underway with first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix!

Daniel Ricciardo among the first drivers out on track in a car he is yet to drive this season! He drove the Red Bull in the Silverstone test last week as opposed to the AlphaTauri.

It’s overcast but dry in Budapest, with the weather set to stay fair throughout the whole race weekend!

A reprofiling of the sidepod and the brake cooling plates have changed for the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, as the quickest car on the grid looks to go even faster!

It should be more aero-efficient and less draggy… a tough thought for the rest of the grid!

The Formula 1 paddock returns to Budapest this weekend for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the popular Hungaroring circuit.

Max Verstappen is looking for a seventh grand prix victory in a row at a track where he won last year from 10th on the grid. The Dutchman is cruising to a third world championship this season, currently holding a 99-point to Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in second.

Yet the biggest talking point this weekend is Daniel Ricciardo’s return to the grid with AlphaTauri. The Australian, dropped by McLaren last year, replaces Nyck de Vries for the remainder of this season and starts at a track where he claimed his second F1 victory in 2014.

First practice is just five minutes away!

Exclusive interview by Kieran Jackson

Daniel Ricciardo is pondering. This year, a presence in the paddock – but not on the racetrack – has been a curiously flummoxing existence for someone so synonymous with a seat at the 20-man table. In his own words, he has been doing “everything the drivers are doing… other than the driving.” So aside from the obvious of the lights-to-flag racing, what has the Australian found the most difficult about his eight months away from Formula 1?

“I’d say the starting grid on Sunday,” he says, a glint in his eye, a longing for something previous. “I love that feeling before you’re about to race. It’s intense, it’s nerve-racking but it’s awesome. I miss that buzz.”

Well, miss it no longer. The Honey Badger is back. Officially on loan from Red Bull to sister team AlphaTauri for the remainder of the season, Ricciardo last week replaced the axed Nyck de Vries and will be in the cockpit in Hungary this weekend. It represents a lifeline – his lifeline – back into the sport, a carving of an opportunity so desperately craved. In the end, he only missed 10 races.

Daniel Ricciardo has been handed a second chance in Formula One, replacing De Vries at Red Bull’s junior team AlphaTauri for the concluding dozen rounds of the year, starting at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

De Vries, 28, crashed on multiple occasions and failed to score a single point, with a best finish of 12th in Monaco, before he was handed his marching orders by Red Bull’s ruthless motorsport adviser Helmut Marko 48 hours after he finished 17th and last at the British Grand Prix.

“I am not surprised to see Daniel back but I was surprised to see the decision they took for poor Nyck,” said Hamilton at the Hungaroring.

Analysis by Kieran Jackson

Within the Red Bull ecosystem, encompassing two teams on the Formula 1 grid and the junior team below, there is no doubting who the senior statesman is. When Dr Helmut Marko speaks, people listen. And for Nyck de Vries, the writing has been on the wall for a while now.

Asked after the British Grand Prix whether Red Bull’s ‘third driver’ Daniel Ricciardo could replace De Vries at Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri, Marko grinned. A grin which told us everything we need to know. “We’ll have the tyre test next week and then we’ll see,” he stated.

That test, with Ricciardo in the cockpit of Red Bull’s RB19 rocketship for the first time this season, took place on Tuesday morning at Silverstone. Hours later, the Australian’s return to F1 was confirmed.