Mercedes dominates start of Hungarian GP weekend
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. | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:21.347 | - | 34 |
2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:21.584 | +0.237s | 34 |
3 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:22.991 | +1.644s | 22 |
4 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:23.082 | +1.735s | 19 |
5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer | 1:23.174 | +1.827s | 28 |
6 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer | 1:23.457 | +2.110s | 27 |
7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Mclaren Honda | 1:23.935 | +2.588s | 28 |
8 | 22 | Jenson Button | Mclaren Honda | 1:23.961 | +2.614s | 18 |
9 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas Ferrari | 1:24.013 | +2.666s | 22 |
10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India Mercedes | 1:24.073 | +2.726s | 29 |
11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India Mercedes | 1:24.120 | +2.773s | 29 |
12 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams Mercedes | 1:24.154 | +2.807s | 27 |
13 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams Mercedes | 1:24.370 | +3.023s | 33 |
14 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1:24.579 | +3.232s | 27 |
15 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber Ferrari | 1:24.981 | +3.634s | 19 |
16 | 50 | Charles Leclerc | Haas Ferrari | 1:25.181 | +3.834s | 22 |
17 | 12 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber Ferrari | 1:25.256 | +3.909s | 18 |
18 | 45 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1:25.260 | +3.913s | 28 |
19 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso Ferrari | 1:25.324 | +3.977s | 16 |
20 | 88 | Rio Haryanto | Mrt Mercedes | 1:27.012 | +5.665s | 23 |
21 | 94 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mrt Mercedes | 1:27.249 | +5.902s | 9 |
22 | 30 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | 1:28.560 | +7.213s | 6 |