Coming into the weekend Red Bull looked the favourites for the 2018 instalment for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Come Free Practice 1 on the Friday and they showed that they were in the running from the outset with Daniel Ricciardo taking the honours in the first practice session. Free Practice 2 was more of the same up front, this time with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel taking the top spot.
Free Practice 1
Red Bull showed they were fast as soon as their cars hit the tarmac in the morning session. At the end of the session it was Daniel Ricciardo running an older spec Renault engine that took the top spot with a 1:17.613. Ricciardo’s time came courtesy of the soft compound tyres. The Red Bull driver ran the medium and soft compound tyres during FP1.
Just narrowly missing out on the top spot in FP1 was the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel with a session best time of 1:17.692, just a mere 0.079s ff the pace. Vettel only ran the soft compound tyres. Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari finished 4th fastest behind the other Red Bull of Max Verstappen. The top 3 drivers being covered by just 0.088s.
It was quite a lively session with the green track proving challenging with the lack of grip in places. Marcus Ericsson spun twice in the Sauber. It was not just Ericsson that was caught out. Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso, and Max Verstappen also had off track excursions courtesy of spins.
If drivers were not spinning off the track they were locking up. Notable lock ups from Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes as well as Sauber test driver Antonio Giovinazzi.
Both Mercedes drivers struggled for grip around the tight and twisty Hungaroring while Renault appeared best of the rest despite the Ferrari customer teams receiving new power units.
CLASSIFICATION (END OF FP1)
Daniel Ricciardo takes the top spot in the opening session
Red Bull and Ferrari leading the Mercedes pair so far…#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/NBJuaEDEmp
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 27, 2018
Free Practice 2
The fight between Ferrari and Red Bull continued in FP2 with Vettel topping the time sheets with a fastest time of 1:16.834 on his qualifying simulation. Max Versatppen in the Red Bull was just 0.074s off Vettel’s benchmark on his qualifying setting a time of 1:16.908. Daniel Ricciardo was 3rd fastest ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in 4th.
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished in the same spot as they finished in FP1, with Hamilton in P5 and Bottas in P6. Romain Grosjean got his Haas in P7 ahead of the Renault of Carlos Sainz in 8th.
Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso and Esteban Ocon in the Force India rounded out the top 10.
The session has fewer spins than FP1. The big one was McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who spun at T5 after dipping a wheel on the grass just before turn-in.
Both Mercedes cars could not get a representative qualifying simulation time with Hamilton more than half a second off the pace.
FP2 CLASSIFICATION (90/90 MINS): Vettel on top after day one, Mercedes with work to do #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/z9VlLJ7go7
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 27, 2018
