Max Verstappen sends clear message to Lewis Hamilton in opening practice session in Hungary as Red Bull star nips in front of rival in the pits... but Mercedes lock out front row in second practice

• Max Verstappen sent a clear message to Lewis Hamilton in FP1 in Hungary
• The pair collided at Silverstone and a bitter row erupted in the aftermath 
• Hamilton and Verstappen almost made contact when emerging from the pits
• The Red Bull star let his speed do the talking as he topped opening practice 

All Red Bull can do now is hope this is an anomaly here and not a trend as Max Verstappen finished third behind both Mercedes drivers in second practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

It was Verstappen, who is still seething from the 180mph collision with Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap that ended his British Grand Prix and sent him to Coventry hospital, who laid down the first marker, going quickest in the morning’s opening practice.

The Red Bull driver made his presence known on Friday as the rivals emerged from the pits at the same time during the first practice session, a clear message to his championship rival. 

Mercedes’ strategy changed, and improved, and they returned to the garage with Valtteri Bottas quickest overall with a 1.17.012, just a fraction, 0.027 seconds to be exact, ahead of Hamilton to dominate second practice.

Unlike at Silverstone this proved something of a low key Friday, no night qualifying, no Sprint to look ahead to, just the data-gathering exercise that is far from thrilling. It felt flat. How could it not when the stakes were so low?

The worry for Red Bull is that Verstappen, while he came third, was not happy at all with the car.

'All the time I try to turn in I’m losing the rear,’ he moaned to his engineers.

‘I don’t know what this is… it feels completely broken.’

Hamilton, who often saves his true race pace performances for when it matters most, had a minor scare when his front left locked up and he went running off into the gravel at Turn 11, eventually managing to avoid damage with the wall to continue his run.

The Brit got in 27 laps in the end, utilising both the medium compound tyres and the soft compound and attention will now turn to Saturday's qualifying where he will look to keep his nose ahead of Verstappen once more, their rivalry bubbling along nicely over the course of the weekend.

Elsewhere, it was a frustrating session for AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda as he had just the final few minutes to get back behind the wheel as engineers repaired his car following a crash in first practice.

He managed just three laps.

It was Tsuonda who caused that opening session to be red-flagged for five minutes so that the mess caused at Turn 4 could be sorted.

Alpine managed both Esteban Ocon (fourth) and Fernando Alonso (seventh) inside the top 10 as they were able to split the Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Sergio Perez.