Free Practice 1 – The Conquering and Dominant Scuderia

Felipe Massa dominated his teammate Kimi Räikkönen and finished at the top of the first free practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix taking place at the Hungaroring.

The McLaren duo, Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, finish in third and fourth positions respectively. Fernando Alonso is fifth for Renault.

As usual, the circuit is very dusty because this track is rarely used. The first half-hour was very quiet as it took waiting for Rubens Barrichello’s Honda to set a reference time although the session had started 33 minutes prior.

Räikkönen then struck hard midway through the session with a time of 1’22”032, which allowed him to stay in the lead until Kovalainen moved ahead after an hour of testing with a time one-tenth of a second faster than his Finnish compatriot.

Massa then took the lead by a mere 0.005 seconds with only a quarter of an hour remaining. He dominated the final part of the session even though Hamilton briefly took the lead for a few seconds before Massa regained his first place.

The Brazilian further improved with a lap in 1’20”981.

His teammate, Räikkönen, also improves in the final moments and climbs to the second step of the podium, remaining, however, 0.364 seconds behind Massa.

Kovalainen finishes third with very good times in the first sector but loses ground on the rest of the track. His teammate, Lewis Hamilton, is fourth.

Behind Alonso, who is fifth, Timo Glock secures a very good sixth place for Toyota.

The BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld are seventh and ninth, respectively. Between them is the other Renault, driven by the recent runner-up to Hamilton at the last German Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet. Jarno Trulli completes this top ten.

The session was troubled by a few incidents: A small off-track excursion for Trulli and Sebastian Vettel’s retirement due to a mechanical problem on his Toro Rosso after only four laps. He is therefore in last place.

Hungarian GP – Free Practice 1 – Results