Formula One

LEWIS HAMILTON ON TOP OF HUNGARIAN GP – FRIDAY PRACTICE

SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES:

Sebastian Vettel: “There’s still a lot of room for improvement and things that we need to do a bit better for the weekend – then we can see where we are. We got a decent run on the primes which was important and we learned things from that, but it looks tight. Unfortunately the weather caught us out, same as everyone, but we will see what we get tomorrow.”

Mark Webber: “We got some running in the wet and the dry, but we’ve got work to do. I’m not super happy with that today, but it’s good that it’s only Friday. We seem to be going okay in some places, but losing time in others – so we’ll go through it tonight. I need to work on the balance. There’s no change from the engine mapping amend.”

Bruno Senna: It was a good afternoon getting a feel for the track conditions and how the tyres were performing. The car was behaving well but we need to keep working. There is good potential in the car though which makes me happy ahead of qualifying tomorrow.

Pastor Maldonado: It was a busy day for us trying a few different things to help us decide which direction to go regarding set-up for the weekend. We didn’t complete all our planned long runs because of the rain this afternoon so it’s difficult to say where we are. I’m still feeling confident for the weekend but we have some work to do in practice tomorrow morning to make sure we can improve before qualifying.

Valtteri Bottas: It was a good first practice for us. It was dry so we completed our programme without any problems. The car felt good but we were also able to make some improvements during the session. There are still some things to fine tune but overall it was a really good morning.

Kimi Räikkönen: “It was a normal Friday for me. We did the normal things and tried to make the car as quick as it can be. We were second fastest which was good, and we’ve managed to improve the setup on my car over the last few races so I’ve been pretty happy with it. We’re just making small improvements, but we’re making them all the time and going in the right direction. It’s only Friday, but we’re hoping for another good day tomorrow. ”

Romain Grosjean: “Not the best day we’ve had but not the worst either. The car didn’t feel quite as I like it, similar to how it felt in Hockenheim, which made things a bit tricky. I made a mistake running wide on the exit of turn seven in the second session which meant I touched the wall, so a big apology to the guys for that. On a more positive note we now understand a few things which need improving in terms of setup, so hopefully tomorrow these will make a difference and I’ll have the confidence to push a bit harder and show the true pace of the car.”

Paul Di Resta  : “I think the most important thing today is that we managed to get some good information on some test items – which is something that has not been easy at previous races with the mixed weather. Even though it rained again this afternoon, we completed a lot of work before it arrived and have some useful set-up data going into the weekend. I managed to run on both the medium and soft compounds today, but we missed out on getting the long run data because of the rain.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “Quite a positive day overall, but like everybody we missed out on getting the long run data. Apart from that, I felt comfortable in the session and we got through most of the set-up programme. I went out towards the end on intermediates to get a feel for the wet conditions, but the track was drying very quickly so there was not too much to learn.”

Jules Bianchi: “Lots of laps for me today, which was useful and I’m getting more used to the car now. I started off by doing a lot of short runs so the team could evaluate some test items, then I did a couple of longer runs towards the end. It was difficult to find the limit and I was not totally comfortable with the car today, so I think there is some more laptime still to come. It’s always valuable to get time in the car on a race weekend and hopefully the team will learn a lot from the data.”

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m21.995            20
 2.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m22.180s  + 0.185  20
 3.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m22.253s  + 0.258  33
 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m22.417s  + 0.422  28
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m22.582s  + 0.587  22
 6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m22.747s  + 0.752  17
 7.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m22.794s  + 0.799  23
 8.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m22.824s  + 0.829  18
 9.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m22.922s  + 0.927  12
10.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m23.160s  + 1.165  19
11.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m23.164s  + 1.169  28
12.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m23.337s  + 1.342  26
13.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m23.713s  + 1.718  25
14.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m23.814s  + 1.819  17
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m23.841s  + 1.846  28
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m24.328s  + 2.333  23
17.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m24.345s  + 2.350  27
18.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m24.623s  + 2.628  22
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m24.823s  + 2.828  28
20.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m25.220s  + 3.225  28
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m27.104s  + 5.109  27
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m27.106s  + 5.111  18
23.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m27.185s  + 5.190  22
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m27.822s  + 5.827  20