F1 2020: Hungarian Grand Prix – Friday

After two weeks in the Styrian mountains surrounding the Red Bull Ring, Formula One hit the Hungaroring in Hungary for Friday Practice ahead of the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas entered this round as championship leader but contrasting weather conditions meant that drivers faced a tough day as we round up the best of the action. 

 

FP1

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Dry conditions awaited drivers as everyone quickly took to the Hungaroring to crack on with a packed FP1 programme, ahead of predicted rain which was forecast to arrive later in the day. 

Max Verstappen set the initial pace for Red Bull until Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas initially took top spot with a 1m 17.765, which was quickly bettered by teammate – Lewis Hamilton with a 1m 17.438 to go fastest after 20 minutes. 

Mercedes then took full control as Bottas and Hamilton traded fastest laps before the Brit eventually posted a FP1 topping time of 1m 16.003, which was just 0.086s quicker than Bottas. 

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Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll of Racing Point were the only rival cars to get within a second of the Silver Arrows in third and fourth respectively, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who finished a surprise fifth for Renault. 

Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari were sixth and seventh ahead of Verstappen who struggled on his soft qualifying simulation run, whilst Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top ten. 

Alfa Romeo gave Reserve Driver, Robert Kubica a run in place of Kimi Raikkonen of which the Pole set the slowest time of a 1m 19.150, ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly who took no part in the session due to power unit issues.

Speaking about Gasly’s issue, Honda F1 Technical Director, Toyoharu Tanabe said; “In FP1, we spotted an anomaly in the data from Gasly’s PU and as a precaution, we changed some components and it ran trouble-free in FP2.”

 

FP2

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The afternoon practice session saw drivers greeted with heavy rain as many opted to remain in their garages, with Gasly briefly venturing out for an installation lap on wet tyres only to then immediately retreat to the pits. 

Perez and Stroll of whom both struggled in Styrian Qualifying last weekend were first to attempt proper runs, of which the Canadian eventually wound up 0.010s faster than his Mexican teammate. 

Raikkonen made up for skipping the morning session by soon venturing out and managed 16 laps on the wet tyres, which saw him wind up in tenth overall come end of the session. 

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Both Ferrari drivers of Vettel and Leclerc then joined the action with the German adjusting better to the conditions, as he posted the fastest time of a 1m 40.464 just before the hour mark. 

Bottas was the only driver to eventually get close to Vettel, finishing 0.272s down on the German’s timesheet topping time as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz rounded out the top three.

Stroll, Perez, Gasly, Verstappen, Grosjean, Raikkonen and Leclerc rounded out the top ten, with Antonio Giovinazzi, Norris and Daniil Kvyat completing the 13 drivers who posted lap times. 

Both Renaults of Ricciardo and Ocon only managed one installation lap as did Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen, whilst both Williams attempted a lap each on wets then intermediate tyres whereas Alex Albon did three laps but on inters first before trying wets. 

 

Results

FP1

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m 16.003
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	+ 0.086
3	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	+ 0.527
4	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	+ 0.964
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	+ 1.197
6	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	+ 1.235
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 1.401
8	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 1.432
9	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1.520
10	Esteban Ocon	Renault	+ 1.612
11	Carlos Sainz	McLaren	+ 1.672
12	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 1.710
13	Alex Albon	Red Bull	+ 1.724
14	Romain Grosjean	Haas	+ 1.887
15	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	+ 1.966
16	Daniil Kvyat	Alpha Tauri	+ 2.289
17	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 2.422
18	George Russell	Williams	+ 2.571
19	Robert Kubica	Alfa Romeo	+ 3.147
20	Pierre Gasly	Alpha Tauri	No Time Set

 

FP2

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m 40.464
2	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	+ 0.272
3	Carlos Sainz	McLaren	+ 1.320
4	Lance Stroll	Racing Point	+ 1.916
5	Sergio Perez	Racing Point	+ 2.006
6	Pierre Gasly	Alpha Tauri	+ 2.124
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 2.356
8	Romain Grosjean	Haas	+ 2.871
9	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo	+ 3.007
10	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 3.261
11	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 3.947
12	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 5.536
13	Daniil Kvyat	Alpha Tauri	+ 6.958
14	Esteban Ocon	Renault	No Time Set
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	No Time Set
16	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	No Time Set
17	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	No Time Set
18	George Russell	Williams	No Time Set
19	Alex Albon	Red Bull	No Time Set
20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	No Time Set