Hungarian GP: Hamilton dominates Friday practice

    The Mercedes driver topped both sessions of the day at Hungaroring.

    Published On Jul 26, 2014 02:23:00 AM

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    Hungarian GP: Hamilton dominates Friday practice

    Lewis Hamilton dominated the opening day of practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, outpacing Formula 1 title rival Nico Rosberg.

    The Mercedes driver, who earlier topped morning practice, was fastest during the early stages of the session when everyone ran on the slower medium-compound Pirelli tyres.

    Red Bull pairing Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo briefly took first and second positions thanks to switching onto the faster softs before Mercedes just after the half-hour mark.

    But Rosberg then put Mercedes back on top with his first flier on the faster rubber, while team-mate Hamilton had a scruffy start to his run.

    Hamilton then put in two faster laps, first outpacing Rosberg by 0.207s and then improving his best mark by 61 thousandths on the sixth lap of his run.

    This was despite complaining several times during the session of struggling with the brakes, saying over the radio early on that "I can't seem to stop the car".

    Vettel, who had an off at the chicane in the early running, held on to end up the best non-Mercedes in third overall, six tenths off the pace and three tenths up on old title rival Fernando Alonso.

    McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen, who ploughed through the gravel at the chicane in the early running, was fifth fastest ahead of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen, with Ricciardo sliding to seventh as others improved on the soft rubber.

    Williams was lower down the timesheets than usual, with Valtteri Bottas eighth ahead of the second McLaren of Jenson Button.

    Felipe Massa was 10th after suffering a spin early in his soft-tyre run before a car problem forced him to return to the garage and miss out on some of the planned long-run track time.

    Williams engineering boss Rob Smedley was seen examining the left-rear wheel in the garage, suggesting the problem might have been in that area.

    Daniil Kvyat and Jean-Eric Vergne was 11th and 12th ahead of Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, who had briefly been third after being the first to try the soft rubber.

    Adrian Sutil was the faster of the two Sauber's ahead of Sergio Perez's Force India.

    Behind them were the two Lotus entries of Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean.

    Maldonado suffered a quick spin on his first run, but recovered to complete a full programme, while Grosjean's running was restricted by the team having to chase a cooling system leak.

    Kamui Kobayashi, another to suffer a spin, was 19th fastest ahead of both Marussias and Caterham team-mate Marcus Ericsson.

    
    Pos Driver                Team                     Time      Gap     Laps
     1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                 1m24.482s          38
     2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                 1m24.720s +0.238s  38
     3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault         1m25.111s +0.629s  33
     4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                  1m25.437s +0.955s  26
     5. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes         1m25.580s +1.098s  34
     6. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                  1m25.730s +1.248s  30
     7. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault         1m25.983s +1.501s  29
     8. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes        1m25.999s +1.517s  37
     9. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes         1m26.234s +1.752s  33
    10. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes        1m26.402s +1.920s  18
    11. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault       1m26.689s +2.207s  42
    12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault       1m26.703s +2.221s  37
    13. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes     1m26.789s +2.307s  39
    14. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari           1m26.919s +2.437s  41
    15. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes     1m27.013s +2.531s  39 
    16. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault            1m27.019s +2.537s  40
    17. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault            1m27.021s +2.539s  14  
    18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari           1m27.480s +2.998s  32
    19. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault         1m28.370s +3.888s  35 
    20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari         1m28.469s +3.987s  26
    21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari         1m28.586s +4.104s  35
    22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault         1m29.036s +4.554s  34
    

     

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