Ahead of today's second session the air temperature is 23 degrees C, while the track temperature is 33 degrees.

While the rain that blighted this morning's session also affected F3 qualifying, the F2 qualifying took place in bright sunshine, consequently we are anticipating a more 'normal' session over the next hour.

As a reminder, Red Bull has a new Front Corner, Rear Corner, Sidepod Inlet, Coke/Engine Cover and Floor Body, while Ferrari has a new Front Wing and Mercedes a new Front Wing, Front Suspension and Rear Wing.

Alpine has a new Front Wing, while Aston Martin has a new Coke/Engine Cover, Haas a new Floor Body and AlphaTauri a new Front Wing, Nose, Floor Body and Rear Wing.

There are no updates for McLaren, Alfa Romeo or Williams.

Only 13 drivers posted times earlier, while the big talking point was Perez's crash just moments into the session, before a single drop of rain had hit the track.

There was another red flag when Sainz beached his car after going off in the difficult conditions.

The lights go green and Albon leads the way, followed by Sargeant, Alonso, Zhou and Ocon. As more drivers head out, most are on mediums though a few are on softs and even a set of hards (Magnussen).

Albon crosses the line at 19.660, though his teammate responds with a 19.490.

As Norris posts a 19.044, Gasly complains that he doesn't have DRS.

Sargeant goes quickest again (18.836), as Bottas goes second ahead of Norris.

Eight minutes in, Russell is the first of the big guns to head out - no disrespect to Alonso.

As Russell crosses the line at 20.380, to go 14th, teammate Hamilton heads out.

He reports an issue after changing his brake balance.

The Williams pair lead the way, both, it must be said, on softs.

On the mediums, Hamilton goes 13th with a 19.756, just ahead of his teammate.

Norris splits the Williams pair with an 18.912.

"I've got no grip in high speed," reports Gasly.

Fifteen minutes in and Perez and the Ferraris - which sounds like a 60's beat group - head out, leaving Verstappen as the only 'no show'.

Leclerc goes seventh on the mediums (19148), and Sainz 18th (20.039).

"Still quite a bit of bottoming but I don't think it's hurting anything," says Norris.

As Russell improves to 12th (19.588), Verstappen heads out.

A 19.105 sees Perez (softs) go sixth, while teammate Verstappen, who is also on the red-banded rubber, crosses the line at 18.911 to go second.

Hamilton improves to 4th (18.943) and Sainz sixth (19.003).

Most are still on the mediums, though a few - Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Stroll - have followed the example of the Bulls and switched to softs.

An 18.377 sees Albon go quickest on the yellow-banded rubber.

Stroll goes quickest (18.319) on the softs but is instantly leapfrogged by the similarly shod Hulkenberg (18.058).

Quickest in the second and third sectors, Tsunoda goes quickest (17.934).

Verstappen improves to third with an 18.279.

Alonso goes third (18.105), as Magnussen improves to seventh, just ahead of Hamilton.

"I almost crashed into Tsunoda there," says Ocon, citing an unsafe release by AlphaTauri. In fact it was Ricciardo not the Japanese driver.

"Front end tyres are not gripping up anymore," reports Verstappen as Norris goes quickest with a 17.701.

A big, big, big lock-up for Perez. Meanwhile, Russell complains that he's suffered a few lock-ups.

Leclerc goes top with a 17.686, as Gasly goes third.

On a low fuel run, Verstappen sets a PB in S1 but subsequently backs off before setting another PB in S3.

"We did half of the lap in traffic," complains Sainz.

Asked if he wants another push lap, Perez says: "I think we will only damage the tyre."

"Check the floor, I went wide into Turn 4," says Zhou, as it is understood that Piastri damaged his floor also.

"Some reports of rain in S2," Sargeant is told, "just small amounts." There are certainly some very dark clouds moving in.

Mercedes and Alfa Romeo are the only teams that haven't tried the softs, Piastri also, which probably accounts for their lowly position on the timesheets.

Informing his team that there is no grip, Hamilton is told that the data is still very useful and that others are encountering the same issues.

"Can't we try calming down these shifts," urges Albon.

The session ends, and what a strange session it was, one of those that posed more questions than it answered.

Clearly, with the 'new' qualifying format there was a strange mixture of tyre strategies as teams appeared to use one driver to focus on tomorrow afternoon and the other for Sunday. Usually we'd have seen mostly softs in this session, whereas it was a fairly even mixture.

In all honesty, we have absolutely no idea what the pecking order is.

Leclerc is quickest, ahead of Norris, Gasly, Tsunoda, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Alonso, Zhou and Sainz.

Verstappen is eleventh, ahead of Stroll, Albon, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Hamilton, Sargeant, Perez, Piastri and Russell.

Check out our Friday gallery from the Hungaroring here.