Hungary – Free Practice 2: Vettel in front, Grosjean, Gasly, and Ocon in the Top 10

This morning, Daniel Ricciardo surprised everyone by setting the fastest time in the first free practice session of this Hungarian Grand Prix.

Even though the Red Bulls were expected on this circuit that suits them well, the Ferraris still seemed fast and are therefore in a position to pounce.

Charles Leclerc gets back into the seat of his Sauber, which he had given up this morning to the Italian Antonio Giovinazzi, who had the luxury of outpacing the other team regular, Marcus Ericsson, who had a rather muddled first session after scoring points at the last Grand Prix in Germany.

The situation is not improving for the Swede, who seems to be in dire straits to keep his seat on track. He spins again during his first flying lap.

More trouble for @Ericsson_Marcus

A couple of slides in FP1 and now another early in FP2 #HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/bvx91xWMZv

— Formula 1 (@F1) 27 juillet 2018

Lewis Hamilton is the first top driver to lead the standings with a time of 1:17.587. The Mercedes were behind this morning with significant balance difficulties, unlike their rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. Max Verstappen takes the second provisional time, 4 thousandths of a second ahead of the other Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, all on Soft tires.

But Max Verstappen, on a second fast lap, takes the lead with 1:17.509 ahead of Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, and Vettel. Räikkönen, Sainz, Grosjean, Alonso, and Ocon complete the Top 10 after 30 minutes of the session.

Verstappen is now setting the pace 👏

TOP 5 (25/90 MINS)
VER 1:17.509s
HAM +0.078s
BOT +0.359s
RIC +0.376s
VET +0.724s#HungarianGP 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/ttwDCcXVw6

— Formula 1 (@F1) 27 juillet 2018

Daniel Ricciardo quickly joins his teammate in 2nd place, confirming the good performance of Red Bull seen this morning. Only 8 hundredths separate the top three in the standings! Marcus Ericsson, recovered from his off-track excursions, secures an astonishing 7th position.

Further down the standings, Fernando Alonso easily makes it into the Top 10, taking advantage of a worrying underperformance from Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, which is only 15th. Charles Leclerc is also quite far back, in 18th, over a second behind Ericsson.

Fitted with ultra-soft tires, Sebastian Vettel doesn’t hesitate to set the best time at 1:16.834. Verstappen, also on purple-banded tires, sets the fastest times in the 2nd and 3rd sectors, but it’s not enough to beat the Ferrari.

Even with the softest compound brought by Pirelli this weekend, the Mercedes are unable to make the most of the Italian tires’ performance over an entire fast lap.

Great group performance by the French drivers who finished in the Top 10 with a 7th place for Romain Grosjean, 9th for Pierre Gasly, and 10th for Esteban Ocon in his Force India.

Good news for Renault and Nico Hülkenberg as they take to the track after managing to repair the mechanical issue encountered on the French single-seater by the German this morning in record time.

Amazing work by the crew; Nico heads out for his first #FP2 run! #RSspirit #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/ABcaQw2d7a

— Renault Sport F1 (@RenaultSportF1) 27 juillet 2018

Now that the fast runs are done, the teams will focus on long stints, on Ultra Soft or Soft tires, in preparation for Sunday’s race. But would that really be a good reference? The sky is getting heavier and cloudier, and rain is expected to make an appearance soon. In the meantime, track temperatures are colder and therefore less significant.

In this exercise, Vettel and Räikkönen’s Ferraris are quite solid and achieve times around the 1:22 mark. The rivals of the Italian team choose to test the Soft tires.

The full classification of FP2:

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) 27 juillet 2018