Hungarian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Mercedes raises the tone for the race

Before the start of this second free practice session in Hungary, an incident on Yuki Tsunoda’s single-seater car is already tarnishing his ambitions for progress.

Twenty first minutes without taking risks

The first to take off is Kimi Räikkönen. He is taking Robert Kubica’s place for the first practice session, whose summary you can still consult. The Finn must therefore optimize his driving time to make up for lost time.

A good result for him is imperative, especially in qualifying if he wants to keep his seat for 2022.

It is relatively hot on the Hungarian track. The drivers are not rushing to do consecutive laps in this first part. Everyone is taking their time to properly prepare their session.

After 20 minutes, the leaders are showing themselves timidly. Hamilton is leading ahead of Bottas, then Verstappen and Perez. The tire used is mainly yellow. Some drivers are testing hard compounds.

Behind the four leading men, the Alpines confirm their positions in 5th and 7th place. Ferrari and Aston Martin are lurking just behind. The McLarens seem to be a step below.

The session livens up a bit as the soft erasers pass by.

It is the Aston Martins of Vettel and Stroll that kick off the hostilities when it comes to the quest for performance. On the red tires, they join the front, respectively in 2nd and 4th place. This confirms that Mercedes and Red Bull are out of reach.

As soon as the black single-seaters return to the track with the fastest tires, it is to reclaim the top two positions. This time Bottas ahead of Hamilton. It is interesting to note that the two garage neighbors surely have different setups. Hamilton being distanced in the first two sectors, but managing to almost catch up with his rival in the third sector alone.

At the rivals, halfway through the session only Verstappen came out to attempt a quick lap. He fails by two tenths of a second from the Mercedes and immediately returns. The Dutch driver is dissatisfied with his settings, his car being too understeering.

Only Hamilton and Norris have tried to push the limits of their tires. Understeer took them off track, but no harm done.

Despite these red rubber seals, the hierarchy remains fairly similar to that of the first twenty minutes.

For the last twenty minutes the tone remains the same

Esteban Ocon starts on red tires, but this time to prepare for the race start. He is relatively heavy on fuel and performs a standing start test at the end of the pit lane. Then follows a few laps on a race format. The pace seems rather fast and promising for Sunday. According to the displayed projections, the French driver is lapping at the times of McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes. It is worth noting that the latter two are on yellow tires.

At Red Bull and especially in Max Verstappen’s camp, the feelings are not ideal. Sergio Perez seems to be slightly behind the Mercedes and his teammate.

The Dutch driver who was experiencing understeer with his single-seater in the first part of the session. He is now struggling with his rear end. For the race, the settings seem to be difficult to find.

Finally, at the back of the pack, the Williams cars are starting to regularly stand out from the Haas and Alfa Romeo as George Russell and Nicholas Latifi finish ahead of Mazepin, Schumacher, and Giovinazzi.

Yuki Tsunoda has carried out only one, in order to verify that the mechanics have successfully restored his car to working order.

Concern at Ferrari?

Authors of the 11th and 12th times Leclerc and Sainz, the Ferraris remained very anonymous for this session. While hopes are allowed on this rather slow and winding track, have they preferred to remain calm by fine-tuning the race settings? Or are they really in trouble?

The ranking of FP2