English
Nederlands
Español
Italiano
GPUpdate
Red Bull easily top first Hungaroring practice
Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel led the way in the first Hungarian Grand Prix practice session on Friday morning. In a dry and chiefly incident-free period, team-mate Mark Webber and World Champion Jenson Button completed the top three with Hockenheim winner Fernando Alonso seventh for Ferrari.
Following the controversy of the German Grand Prix only five days ago, Felipe Massa returned to the Budapest track on Thursday – scene of his near-fatal crash 12 months ago and which still shows the infamous skid marks at Turn 4.
Air temperatures ranged between 22 and 24°C (72-75°F) as the 90-minute session took place this morning, with a dusty track still needing to be cleaned as the cars tour. Reserve driver Paul di Resta was back in the Force India cockpit although only team-mate Adrian Sutil ran the team’s blown diffuser, which was trialled for the first time.
Jarno Trulli’s Lotus could be seen smoking in the pit lane and the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher was heard to making an usual sound as it ground to a halt several hundred metres away; however, both men were soon able to return to the track, confirming their problems were limited.
With the threatening Red Bulls a full second quicker than anybody, Button made third spot after remaining in the garage in the opening stages, with McLaren making several changes to his rear suspension. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton featured less, though, as the two-time Hungary winner ended up just 18th quickest.
As Williams ran sensors on the right-hand turning vane of Nico Hülkenberg’s car, Vitaly Petrov’s Renault experienced the only lurid moment of the session as he spun upon exiting Turn 14, the final corner; facing the pit wall, the Russian was able to reverse and rejoin despite being momentarily parked on the racing line.
Vettel – whose best effort was 1:20.976 – looked to be improving his time on the final run although the German was clearly annoyed with Massa as the Ferrari slowed his progress on the run through Turn 12.
Practice 2 begins at 2pm local time (BST +1) and can also be followed live via GPUpdate.net
Related
Series
Formula 1
Personalities
Sebastian Vettel
Teams
Red Bull
Comments
More news
- 10 Feb 2012
- F1 Jean-Eric Vergne: A positive day
- 9 Feb 2012
- F1 Latest F1 photos: Jerez testing - Day 3
- F1 Senna: FW34 has potential
- F1 There's a lot to learn, says van der Garde
- F1 Bianchi ‘very sorry’ after crashing Force India
- F1 Vettel: Lots of grip loss due to restrictions
- F1 Jerez testing - Day 3 results
- F1 Rosberg quickest on Day 3 in Jerez
- F1 Bianchi's accident ends Force India’s day
- F1 There's a lot of work to do, says Massa
- F1 Webber: Red Bull making good progress
- 7 Feb 2012
- F1 So far so good, says Webber
- F1 Webber completes RB8 track debut
- 6 Feb 2012
- F1 F1 video: The new Red Bull RB8
- F1 Red Bull air inlet raises eyebrows in Jerez
- F1 Webber: Great opportunities for me in 2012
- F1 F1 photos: Red Bull launches RB8 online
- F1 Red Bull launches new RB8
- 30 Jan 2012
- F1 Vettel recruits another Finnish trainer
- 23 Jan 2012
- F1 Ecclestone hoping Vettel dominance is over
- 18 Jan 2012
- F1 Red Bull and Force India reveal launch dates
More news
Join our community
Photos
| Sebastian Vettel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| More Sebastian Vettel photos | |||