Sebastian Vettel finally put a clean lap together without traffic or error to claim top spot ahead of the two Red Bulls in second practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday.
The German would find a massive 1.4 seconds in lap time between the Soft and the UltraSoft compound as he moved to within just a few hundredths of his pole lap record from last year with a 1m16.834s.
Unsurprisingly it was in the first sector, where most of the straights are that the Ferrari would have the advantage over the Red Bull with Max Verstappen unable to make up the four-tenths deficit throughout the rest of the lap and finishing just 0.074s behind in second.
Teammate Daniel Ricciardo admitted there was still time on the table as he struggled a little with the set-up in third, a quarter of a second off his former teammate.
Kimi Raikkonen’s quiet day continued in fourth as the two Mercedes’ failed to set a lap time on the Ultrasoft compound as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas both overheated their rear tyres which led to mistakes in the final sector.
Their pace on the Soft compound early in the session was competitive, however, so if solutions can be found to their woes on the purple tyre then perhaps they can be right in the frame.
Once again it was the heat that was a key factor, however, for the end of session race simulations cloud cover from a nearby thunderstorm saw a dramatic reduction in temperatures which prevented teams from gathering exact data from the tyres in the hot conditions expected on Sunday.
The lack of grip on the track, which sat at 60 degrees Celsius according to Sergio Perez but was recorded several degrees cooler also meant there was still several mistakes with drivers locking up and spinning off.
Marcus Ericsson would have his third off of the day early in the session while Stoffel Vandoorne would have the most spectacular, losing the rear after touching the grass on the approach to Turn 5.
Also Read:
In the midfield, four different teams claimed the final four places inside the top 10 but it was still Haas vs. Renault for ‘best of the rest’ with Romain Grosjean leading Carlos Sainz by four-tenths in P7.
Having last scored points around the twisty confines of Monaco, Pierre Gasly raised Toro Rosso’s hopes in P9 with Esteban Ocon completing the would-be Q3 order in qualifying in P10 for Force India.
The Frenchman’s teammate Sergio Perez would follow in 11th ahead of Fernando Alonso in the McLaren, almost a second faster than his partner Stoffel Vandoorne in 19th as the Belgian’s problems continue.
Kevin Magnussen suffered from engine cut-outs from his new Ferrari unit during the session and would some eight-tenths down on teammate Grosjean in 13th as Nico Hulkenberg made up for the battery problem from Practice 1 in 14th.
Brendon Hartley was 15th with the two Sauber’s struggling for pace as Ericsson, who was also unsafely released from his pit-box earning his team a fine, and Charles Leclerc sat a tenth apart in 16th and 17th.
The two Williams’ would round out the grid with Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin either side of Vandoorne’s McLaren in 18th and 20th respectively.
