2019 F1 Hungary Grand Prix: Friday analysis

In Hungary usually you try your best to keep out of the heat and stay in the shade, but the same as last year, it rained in Budapest on a very rainy Friday.

The teams only got around 20 minutes worth of dry-running, meaning teams spent large amounts of time in the garage and only briefly headed out on the intermediate tyres to get a feel for the car in the slippery conditions.

Excitingly, it’s pretty close, with Mercedes leading the way and Red Bull and Ferrari just one-and-a-half tenths off the pace.

Best single lap:

1 Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton) 1:17.233s
2 Red Bull (Max Verstappen) 1:17.398s +0.165s
3 Ferrari (Sebastian Vettel) 1:17.399s +0.166s
4 Haas (Kevin Magnussen) 1:17.942s +0.709s
5 Renault (Nico Hulkenberg) 1:18.417s +1.184s
6 McLaren (Lando Norris) 1:18.531s +1.298s
7 Alfa Romeo (Kimi Raikkonen) 1:18.787s +1.554s
8 Toro Rosso (Daniil Kvyat) 1:18.892s +1.749s
9 Racing Point (Sergio Perez) 1:19.325s +2.092s
10 Williams (George Russell) 1:19.649s +2.416s

FP1

Mercedes topped the best lap with a 1:17.2 lap from Lewis Hamilton showing their dominance early on in the Friday practice sessions that their overall pace has been unmatched by everyone.

Max Verstappen wasn’t far behind Hamilton with a lap that was 0.165 seconds slower than Hamilton’s, but showing what the young Dutchman can do at any track.

Sebastian Vettel’s time was only 0.001 seconds slower than Verstappen’s showing that Ferrari had the better pace in the first sector, but dropped off the pace a little in the corners leading up to the finish line.

Haas was best of the rest with Kevin Magnussen’s time putting them fourth of the ten teams after Friday with a time of 1:17.9 which was a great time for the team.

Renault and McLaren followed putting in very similar times with only 0.1 seconds separating the two teams from each other as they hunt down the top three teams again after an awful German Grand Prix for the Renault team.

Alfa Romeo, who tested a low-down-force rear wing in opening practice, were next up, a couple of tenths ahead of Toro Rosso, who lost a bunch of track time after Alexander Albon got a couple of wheels on the grass at the start of FP2 and ended up in the barriers, ending his interest in the session.

After a fantastic German Grand Prix that saw Lance Stroll finish in fourth, saw Racing Point near the bottom of the timing charts with Sergio Perez’s time two seconds of Hamilton’s quickest lap.

Williams, buoyed by their first point in Germany, were closer to the rest of the pack than they have been all year with George Russell’s time only being 0.4 seconds slower that Perez’s.

FP2

In FP2 that change though with Pierre Gasly topping the timings in the rain-inflicted second practice session with a very good time of 1:17.854.

Verstappen and Hamilton were not far behind with both drivers putting in a 1:17.9 and were only roughly 0.1 seconds behind the Frenchman.

Valterri Bottas was 0.2 seconds behind Hamilton and Verstappen clocking in a sub 1:18 time which placed him in fourth after FP2.

Daniel Ricciardo stepped up his game an ended FP2 in P5 after a fantastic lap saw him rise up the leader-boards with Raikkonen not far behind him.

Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg, Antonio Giovinazzi and Danil Kvyat all were 0.1 seconds of each other as the rain clumped the drivers together.

Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished FP2 in 11th and 12th respectively for Haas after a great FP1 saw them slip down the timing charts a little.

Sebastian Vettel was down in 13th as the rain damped his driving in FP2 with Carlos Sainz not far away from matching the German’s time.

Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, George Russell, Lando Norris and Robert Kubica were also so close of each other at the bottom of the timing charts with Alex Albon not being able to take part after his crash at the start of the session.