Hungary – Private Testing – The Complete Report of the Two Days

For the first day of private testing at the Hungaroring track, following the Hungarian Grand Prix, twelve drivers hit the track for the 10 teams on the grid.

Only Mercedes and Force India ran two drivers during the day: Valtteri Bottas and young Briton George Russell for the reigning world champion team, and Russian Nikita Mazepin and Austrian Lucas Auer, nephew of Gerhard Berger, for the Indian team.

All these distinguished drivers were joined on track by Canadian Nicholas Lafiti for Renault, his compatriot Lance Stroll with Williams, Stoffel Vandoorne for McLaren, Monégasque Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, Indonesian Sean Galael in the Toro Rosso, Swede Gustav Malja with Sauber, American Santino Ferrucci with Haas, and finally Max Verstappen behind the wheel of his Red Bull.

From the morning, it is Charles Leclerc who stands out at the wheel of a Ferrari that works very well on this track, as proven by the two main drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, during the Grand Prix last Sunday by achieving a one-two finish.

The Monegasque completes 98 laps in the day and is credited with the best time, two minutes before the end of the day, at 1:17.746, one and a half seconds off the new track record set by Vettel last Saturday.

Stoffel Vandoorne also confirms the good form of the McLarens by setting the second fastest time of the day, after leading the timing charts for a long time, less than a tenth behind the Ferrari. An amusing detail is that with his time of 1:17.834, the Belgian posted almost the exact same time as in Q3 last weekend, only 0.06 seconds different.

Many young drivers thus discovered Formula 1 and the driving of these new 2017 single-seaters, like Lucas Auer, a DTM regular who recorded an encouraging 9th fastest time with only about fifty laps completed.

On the side of the more experienced, Max Verstappen had a frustrating first day with some mechanical issues that hindered his progress.

The ranking of the first day:

#F1TESTING INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (DAY ONE): 12 drivers, 1,105 laps #F1 pic.twitter.com/sanVI4VCKy

— Formula 1 (@F1) 1 août 2017

The highlight of this second and final day of testing was, of course, Robert Kubica’s first laps driving a 2017 model Formula 1 car.

After successfully completing the extraction tests the day before, the Pole was finally able to take to the track, even though his pit exit was not without incident. Indeed, the board displaying Nico Hülkenberg’s location during the Hungarian Grand Prix suddenly fell off and landed on the rear of the Renault, resulting in no consequences other than providing a most comical image.

Robert #Kubica driving our R.S.17!
Even our garage was too excited! #BudaTest pic.twitter.com/f5lpilaVuJ

— Renault Sport F1 (@RenaultSportF1) 2 août 2017

Despite this, Kubica completed 142 laps for a 4th fastest time with 1:18.572. An already successful return for the former BMW-Sauber driver, which could well give several team principals ideas for 2018.

In the other teams, the line-up for the second day has somewhat changed. Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen return to the wheel of their Ferrari, and the German will quickly set the best time of the morning with 1.17.124, still quite far from the track record but which will remain unbeaten throughout the day.

Carlos Sainz takes the wheel of the Toro Rosso while it is the Frenchman Pierre Gasly who replaces Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. The Italian Luca Ghiotto finds himself in the seat of the Williams for the day and the Japanese Nobuharu Matsushita, an F2 driver, seizes his chance with Sauber. For McLaren, it’s the young Lando Norris, 17 years old, who becomes the youngest driver of these two days of testing.

A major topic in recent discussions, the Halo is also present at the Hungaroring. Mercedes has been chosen as the test subject to perfect this head protection system for drivers, which will be integrated into all single-seaters starting next season.

.@MercedesAMGF1 teenager George Russell got familiar with the Halo around the Hungaroring during the morning session#F1Testing 🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/QnDs1twNgE

— Formula 1 (@F1) 2 août 2017

The other sensation of the day is the young Lando Norris, who placed his McLaren in 2nd position on the timesheet, just over 2 tenths behind Vettel’s best time in the Ferrari. The Briton, already hailed in Woking as a future star, completed 91 laps in his first Formula 1 experience.

Standings of the second day:

INITIAL CLASSIFICATION: END OF DAY TWO#F1Testing 🇭🇺 #F1 pic.twitter.com/WPanqOFwk4

— Formula 1 (@F1) 2 août 2017