Mercedes dominates start of Hungarian GP weekend

By on

Both Mercedes proved to be extremely quick around the Hungaroring, as running started in preparation of Sunday Hungarian GP. At the end of the first practice session, Lewis Hamilton was fatest, nearly 3 tenths quicker than team mate Rosberg and a whopping 1.6s ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who was third fastest.

Times and relative gaps obviously evolve at a race weekend progresses, but the initial advantage confirmed yet again which are likely to be the cars to beat this weekend.

The top 8 were all drivers that were relatively closely matched to their team mates, all positioned one behind the other. The Ferrari pairing was 3rd and 4th quickest with less than a tenth separating the two. The Red Bull duo followed, with Alonso and Button up next in the McLaren Honda's.

The interesting difference however is that from the 10 fastest cars in the session, only Red Bull and McLaren opted not to use the supersoft tyres yet, instead running the entire session on the soft compound Pirelli tyres.

Romain Grosjean wasn't matched by his team mate, although that is likely the effect of having Charles Leclerc into the second Haas. Esteban Gutierrez will be back behind the wheel in the second free practice session. Grosjean wasa 9th fastest, while test driver Leclerc posted the 16th fastest time.

Sergio Perez was 10th fastest, just ahead of team mate Nico Hulkenberg and the Williams Mercedes duo, led by Felipe Massa.

Results

Pos.No.DriverCarTimeGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:21.347-34
26Nico RosbergMercedes1:21.584+0.237s34
35Sebastian VettelFerrari1:22.991+1.644s22
47Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:23.082+1.735s19
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:23.174+1.827s28
633Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing Tag Heuer1:23.457+2.110s27
714Fernando AlonsoMclaren Honda1:23.935+2.588s28
822Jenson ButtonMclaren Honda1:23.961+2.614s18
98Romain GrosjeanHaas Ferrari1:24.013+2.666s22
1011Sergio PerezForce India Mercedes1:24.073+2.726s29
1127Nico HulkenbergForce India Mercedes1:24.120+2.773s29
1219Felipe MassaWilliams Mercedes1:24.154+2.807s27
1377Valtteri BottasWilliams Mercedes1:24.370+3.023s33
1455Carlos SainzToro Rosso Ferrari1:24.579+3.232s27
159Marcus EricssonSauber Ferrari1:24.981+3.634s19
1650Charles LeclercHaas Ferrari1:25.181+3.834s22
1712Felipe NasrSauber Ferrari1:25.256+3.909s18
1845Esteban OconRenault1:25.260+3.913s28
1926Daniil KvyatToro Rosso Ferrari1:25.324+3.977s16
2088Rio HaryantoMrt Mercedes1:27.012+5.665s23
2194Pascal WehrleinMrt Mercedes1:27.249+5.902s9
2230Jolyon PalmerRenault1:28.560+7.213s6