Hungary – Free Practice 2: Vettel Ahead of Bottas and Sainz in the Rain

A very calm start to the session

The rain was definitely present for the second free practice session in Hungary. A rather calm session as the drivers were hesitant to go out on a soaked track.

After a mechanical problem in Free Practice 1 that had prevented him from running, Pierre Gasly was the first driver to take to the track despite the wet asphalt. All to ensure that the problems with the AlphaTauri had disappeared. It took almost 20 minutes to see other drivers come out in the rain. First was Sergio Perez’s Racing Point, quickly followed by his teammate Lance Stroll and Kimi Räikkönen.

With 47 minutes remaining, Estevan Ocon was the first to try his luck on intermediate tires but seeing that the track was still too wet for the green-banded tires, the Frenchman returned to the pits at the end of his warm-up lap. His teammate at Renault, the Australian Daniel Ricciardo, tried just after but there was nothing to be done, only the wet tires were working.

A Session Lacking in Teachings

This second free practice session, disrupted by rain, did not allow us to properly analyze what the competitive order will be for the rest of the weekend. Even though Sebastian Vettel seemed to confirm the improved form of the SF1000, it is not certain that the German could have climbed to the top of the standings if the Racing Point cars and especially the Mercedes had not done more running at the end of the session.

We will also have to wait for the FP3 to see if the Red Bulls are really as far off the pace of the Mercedes. 8th in FP1 and now 7th behind Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri, Max Verstappen is still very far, despite the rain on this practice Friday.

N°	Driver	Team	Times	Gap	Laps
1	Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1’40’464		12
2	Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1’40’736	+0.003	5
3	Sainz Jr.	McLaren F1 Team	1’41’784	+0.103	6
4	Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1’42’380	+0.199	6
5	Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1’42’470	+0.200	5
6	Gasly	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1’42’588	+0.201	7
7	Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1’42’820	+0.204	4
8	Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1’43’335	+0.299	6
9	Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing	1’43’471	+0.300	16
10	Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow	1’43’725	+0.303	10
11	Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	1’44’411	+0.400	9
12	Norris	McLaren F1 Team	1’46’000	+0.596	5
13	Kvyat	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1’47’422	+0.700	7
14	Ocon	Renault F1 Team			1
15	Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team			1
16	Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport			1
17	Latifi	Williams Racing			2
18	Russell	Williams Racing			2
19	Albon	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing			3
20	Magnussen	Haas F1 Team			1