The Hungarian Grand Prix saw Aston Martin's new package take to the track for the first time, and team boss Adrian Newey was pleased with what he saw. The team's new car showed a significant step forward from their previous performance, with Fernando Alonso setting the 13th fastest time in the session, just 2.475 seconds behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
This is a marked improvement for Aston Martin, who have generally been around four seconds off the pace so far this season. Newey acknowledged that it was still early days in terms of understanding the new package, but he was optimistic about what the future holds.
"Very early days in terms of understanding the new package," Newey said. "Provisional results are promising. We will have some more steps in Monza and Baku, so it is the first part of our planned upgrade." He also emphasized that the team would be taking a cautious approach with the new car, given its significant changes.
One area where Aston Martin did experience issues was with Lance Stroll's rear suspension failure. The incident occurred as Stroll rounded Turn Three with around 20 minutes left in the session. Newey acknowledged that it was unexpected and said that the team would be working to understand what went wrong.
"Everybody is feverishly trying to understand what went wrong and it is only once we have an understanding that we can comment on what we do next," he explained. "The area involved is not what has been changed, so in that sense it was very unexpected." Alonso was sent out straight away after the session restarted.
Meanwhile, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc set the fastest time of the session, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen second and Lewis Hamilton third. Mercedes' George Russell finished fifth, ahead of Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto.
