In a drenched Hungaroring, Ferrari Vettel gave the team something to smile about, setting the fastest time in free practice 2 for the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix with a 1m 40.464s, 0.272s ahead of Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes.
With lap times around 24 seconds slower than the drivers were running dry on Friday morning, Vettel and Bottas finished ahead of Carlos Sainz’s McLaren in third place and both race points by Lance Stroll and Sergio Pérez. Although FP1 leader Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Alex Albon failed to establish a largely unrepresentative lap time in the session, he saw drivers dividing their race between intermediate tires and wet tires.
How it happened – Second practice in Hungary
Having missed all of Free Practice 1 with a sensor issue, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly attempted to use FP2 to catch up on lost time, becoming the first driver to come out of the session at full weight, although the Frenchman managed only seven laps, complaining of a burning smell on his AT01 right at the end of the session as it ended in P6.
Hungary FP2: Pérez bounces through the gravel in the wet
|
one Sebastian Vettel VETERINARIAN Ferrari |
1: 40,464 |
|
two Valtteri Bottas BOT Mercedes |
+ 0.272s |
|
3 Charles Sainz UPS McLaren |
+ 1,320s |
|
4 4 spear Walk STR Racing point |
+ 1,916s |
|
5 5 Sergio Perez BY Racing point |
+ 2.006s |
With only 13 drivers scheduling a time, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was seventh, 2.3 seconds adrift of Vettel, and ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Haas.
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, picking up his Robert Kubica car for FP2, complained of “zero grip” and endured several off-track excursions, but racked up the most laps with 16.
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He finished in P9, a place in front of Charles Leclerc’s second Ferrari, who was also unhappy with his SF1000’s lack of rear grip when he finished tenth, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi’s second Alfa Romeo, Lando Norris’s McLaren and AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat.
So perhaps there isn’t much to learn from the second free practice session of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. But with a changing forecast for next weekend, could some of the drivers have gained any valuable insight in FP2? Stay tuned to qualify tomorrow and Sunday’s race to find out.
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