Hungary – Free Practice 2: Hamilton finishes ahead of Rosberg and Vettel

The second free practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix begins with an air temperature of 26°C and… 54°C on the track. The heat continues to follow the F1 circus.

The session is underway! And as expected, Max Chilton – who could hardly drive during FP1 due to a gearbox issue – is among the first on track. Kevin Magnussen goes off into the Hungarian gravel at the start of the session where Maldonado, then Hülkenberg, successively set the fastest lap time. The Venezuelan, moments later, makes a mistake in the second sector of the Hungaroring, at the entry of Turn 5.

Alonso, on an always unstable Ferrari, sets the provisional best time with 1:27.199. It must be said that errors, like this morning, are legion: Maldonado, Gutierrez, Vergne, Hamilton… all experienced the joys of the sidelines. At Lotus, Grosjean returns to the pits after a little quarter-hour: they’re busy at the rear of the E22, likely due to a cooling problem. As for Magnussen, the Woking team is checking that the off-track excursion at the start of the session didn’t cause any damage.

Quickly, the Mercedes resume their usual position: at the front, with Hamilton (1:26.161) ahead of Rosberg. The drivers have not yet used the softest tires brought by Pirelli to Budapest.

After 30 minutes, Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Magnussen, and Alonso make up the top 5. Hülkenberg is the first driver to fit the soft tires (yellow): he sets the provisional third-fastest time, over 7 tenths behind Hamilton (medium tires, white). Kvyat, after passing the chicane, experiences such significant oversteer that he is surprised himself, as shown by his hand gesture. A few moments later, it’s Kobayashi who suffers from the same problem, but he loses control of his car, which spins out without touching anything. He gets back on track under the eyes of Christijan Albers, his new director.

The Red Bulls, seven minutes into the session, seize the top of the standings, with Vettel eight-tenths ahead of Ricciardo. Grosjean, who had finally managed to get going again, is immediately called back to his pit. The problem is not resolved. In terms of timing, Rosberg is not holding back and takes the lead over Vettel with a 1:24.720, four-tenths ahead of the reigning champion. Meanwhile, Hamilton seems to be experiencing braking issues, but he regains the advantage, two-tenths ahead of his teammate. Massa went off at the chicane braking.

Grosjean exits the pits, 35 minutes before the end of the session. The Lotus driver is the only one yet to set a time. He corrects this by posting a 1:27.021 on soft tires, and cheerfully climbs over the curbs of the chicane.

After one hour, Hamilton (1:24.482) is less than three-tenths ahead of Rosberg, seven-tenths ahead of Vettel, almost a second ahead of Alonso, and 1.1s ahead of Magnussen. In Felipe Massa’s garage, there are doubts about the condition of the left rear suspension. The drivers are currently on their long runs, and no improvement is noticeable; Hülkenberg is even informed that he’s saving too much fuel.

At Mercedes, flow-viz is out to observe the behavior of the airflow between the two pillars of the front wing, and then towards the flat floor. Rosberg is instructed to use a lower gear in turn 1 to preserve the engine: “Didn’t you ask me to try 4th gear in the first turn?” the German asks his engineer. “Yes,” responds the latter, “but it’s too much for the engine.” After 21 laps on softs, the current championship leader indicates that his tires are destroyed, even though his lap times didn’t seem much slower.

The session ends in the same order as this morning for the Mercedes team: Lewis Hamilton ahead of Nico Rosberg. They are followed by Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, and Kevin Magnussen.