Leclerc fastest before stopping as Aston Martin hit early fault with new-look car

Aston Martin's heavily upgraded car suffered a suspected suspension failure which spun Lance Stroll off track, as Ferrari Charles Leclerc set an impressive pace for Ferrari before running into his own technical trouble, during a highly eventful first practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Leclerc outpaced Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton by half a second in a flying start to the Hungaroring weekend for the Monegasque driver with a best lap of 1:19.075.

But Leclerc's session ended seven minutes early when he had to stop at the top of the pit lane after reporting that "something broke" on his SF-26 car. Ferrari have not yet confirmed what went wrong.

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Aston Martin, meanwhile, revealed 16 separate aerodynamic updates on their AMR26 car ahead of the session in the team's long-awaited first upgrade of a season which has hitherto seen them run at the back of the field.

But Stroll's session lasted just 11 laps after a suspected rear suspension failure pitched him off the road in a high-speed spin coming out of Turn Two.

The Canadian's car avoided contact with the barriers, but the team will now make the necessary repairs, and conduct investigations into what exactly went wrong, ahead of second practice at 4pm.

Team-mate Fernando Alonso, was, however, able to complete the session without apparent problem in the sister car, racking up 20 laps and finishing a promising 13th fastest.

That was 2.4 seconds behind Leclerc's pace but Aston Martin's deficit to the front has regularly been between three and four seconds in qualifying at recent events amid a lack of updates.

George Russell was fifth fastest, almost a second slower than Leclerc, in a session world championship-leading team-mate Kimi Antonelli sat out so Mercedes could give another P1 outing to third driver Fred Vesti as part of the mandatory young driver requirements all teams must fulfil on four Fridays each season.

Vesti was seventh fastest, 0.4s away from Russell.

Isack Hadjar finished fourth quickest in the second Red Bull ahead of Russell and Audi's in-form Gabriel Bortoleto.

Verstappen and Williams' Carlos Sainz must head to the stewards after the session, with both drivers charged with driving erratically following an incident early in the session.

Sainz initially got in Verstappen's way into Turn 12 before the Red Bull driver then seemed to slow in turn in front of the Williams once ahead through the corner.

Sainz will also be quizzed by the stewards about a second alleged incident of erratic driving later in the session involving Alpine rookie Paul Aron at Turn Nine.

The Williams driver was slowest of all in an opening session which also included a huge lock-up into the first corner. A host of the drivers ran wide there to a greater or lesser extent during the hour, including Russell and Verstappen.

Sky Sports F1's Hungarian GP schedule

Friday July 24
3.45pm: Hungarian GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show

Saturday July 25
9am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Hungarian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint*
2.15pm: Hungarian GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: HUNGARIAN GP QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday July 26
7.35am: F3 Feature Race
9.05am: Porsche Supercup
10.20am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Hungarian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: THE HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Hungarian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
5pm: Ted's Notebook*

*Also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 heads straight to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix with every session live on Sky Sports F1 from this Friday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime