Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished top of the timesheet in FP2 for the Hungarian Grand Prix, narrowly beating FP1 pacesetter Max Verstappen as Red Bull continues to impress at the Hungaroring.
Vettel recorded a 1m16.834s on the ultrasoft tyre during a qualifying simulation run to vault to the top of the timesheet.
He was behind the Mercedes duo after the opening soft tyre runs at the beginning of the 90-minute session. However, a session-best sector one time, combined with Mercedes’ failure to improve on the ultrasoft rubber, propelled Vettel ahead.
Red Bull continued to post session best times in sectors two and three. Verstappen ended up a slender 0.074s behind Vettel, while his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo was third.
Kimi Raikkonen finished the session in fourth place and despite being 0.319s behind Vettel, he was still 0.434s ahead of the fastest Mercedes.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas made mistakes on their ultrasoft tyre qualifying simulation attempts. Hamilton slid wide at the long right-handed final corner and aborted his lap. Bottas locked-up and took to the run-off area at Turn 12. They finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Their previous timesheet topping soft tyre personal bests were still fast enough to allow them to remain clear of the midfield, with Romain Grosjean occupying the best of the rest position 0.2s behind Bottas in seventh place.
Carlos Sainz Jr ended up eighth, while his Renault team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was 14th. Following an electrical fault in FP1, Hulkenberg missed the first 40 minutes of the session while his mechanics completed the repairs.
Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Force India’s Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10, while Sergio Perez pipped Fernando Alonso to 11th place.
Alonso’s McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne endured a difficult session, spinning on the entry to Turn 5 after touching the grass with his left wheels. Despite keeping the car out of the wall and continuing in the session, Vandoorne could only manage 19th on the timesheet.
After two spins in the opening practice session, Marcus Ericsson added to his tally in FP2. He looped his Sauber at Turn 9 in the first 15 minutes of the session.
He was also instructed to stop in the pitlane after his team failed to fit all four tyres correctly during a pitstop in the latter stages. Ericsson finished 16th, beating team-mate Charles Leclerc – who was replaced by Antonio Giovinazzi in FP1 – by less than a tenth.
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