@PierreGASLY leads @RedBullRacing 1-2 in #HungarianGP FP2. #F1

Pierre Gasly lead from team-mate Max Verstappen in a Red Bull Racing one-two in the afternoon practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix as the rain settled in.

 

 

The hour and a half session began with high anticipation for rain, meaning the teams were determined to head out early to take advantage of the dry conditions.

 

However, a red flag interrupted the session three minutes in as Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon crashed at the final corner.

 

Albon touched the grass with his left wheels and sent his Honda-powered STR14 racer sideways into the barrier at the right hand corner with the Thai-Briton admitting it was a driver error.

 

After the six minute hiatus, the session resumed and as light rain slowly fell, drivers went out on a variety of compounds while they could still use the slick rubber.

 

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was the first to post the quickest time with a 1:18.289 on C3 yellow-marked mediums that disposed of Kimi Raikkonen’s initial effort from the first three minutes running.

 

Silver Arrows team-mate Lewis Hamilton jumped the Finn with a 1:18.110 on C1 white side-walled hards before lowering his benchmark to a 1:17.995.

 

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen then snatched P1 running the medium rubber and setting a 1:17.909 before team-mate Gasly set his quick time, a 1:17.909 to take top spot as the session became declared wet.

 

The rest of the field were unable to improve their efforts, although everyone bar Albon ran the intermediates and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz even done a single lap on slick tyres.

 

Verstappen kept second place behind his team-mate and was 0.055 seconds adrift with the Dutchman ahead of third-placed Hamilton and fourth-placed Bottas.

 

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo was briefly up to a high second before dropping down to fifth on the time-sheets, ending up 0.743 off of Gasly’s benchmark.

 

Raikkonen ended FP2 as the quickest Ferrari-powered car in his Alfa Romeo Racing C38, taking sixth place and in-front of the leading works machine of Charles Leclerc, who ran mediums to post his time.

 

The other Renault of Nico Hulkenberg ran softs and came home eighth and ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who was ninth and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat who completed the top ten with both also running soft rubber.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean, who was running the season-opening Australian GP-spec VF-19 was 11th fastest and ahead of 12th-placed team-mate Kevin Magnussen (using the upgraded version).

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ended the day 13th, running the harder compounds when the track was dry and 1.400 seconds adrift of Gasly’s time – with the German also having a moment when he cut the turns six and seven chicane.

 

McLaren’s Sainz was 14th fastest, using the medium rubber and in-front of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who took 15th, running hards and was three tenths further back from the Spaniard.

 

The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll, also on hards wound up 16th ahead of the soft rubber running Williams of George Russell, who was 2.035 seconds off Gasly’s benchmark.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris lost track time after his MCL34 racer suffered an early hydraulic leak that happened when he first hit the track, but the Briton did run mediums to post the 18th-quickest time.

 

ROKiT Williams Racing’s Robert Kubica was the slowest of the runners in 19th as the aforementioned Albon did not post a time before his crash.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Magyar Nagydij 2019 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1011/hungary/practice-2.html

 

Missed out on Free Practice 1? You can read what happened in the earlier days running at the link: @LewisHamilton tops #HungarianGP FP1 as @ValtteriBottas suffers problem. #F1

 

Post-Practice Selected Driver Quotes

 

Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “FP1 was a good session. I wanted to come back into the weekend feeling better and getting straight on it. The car the balance was quite nice straight from the get-go. We made some changes in between the sessions, but unfortunately we didn’t really get to test it. This afternoon I only got a few laps on the Hard tyre, then we stopped because running in the wet is kind of irrelevant when you know that the race is most likely going to be dry. The weather was tricky; from the pit lane and on camera it looks like it’s just spitting, but when you’re driving through it, it’s raining a lot everywhere. The surface is quite dark as well, so you can’t really spot if it’s dry or damp.”

 

Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “During my first timed lap in FP1 I had an issue with the engine where I lost power. The engine went into a safety mode so I had to come back in. The team couldn’t find the issue immediately, so we decided to swap the Power Unit for FP2. We were hoping for more laps in the afternoon, but the weather conditions meant that I only got three proper timed laps in in the dry and a couple in the wet. But at least the car felt good on the few laps I drove it. I got a feel for the car balance and an idea of what we need to work on for tomorrow. In the wet, the car felt better than it did last weekend, with a nicer balance and more grip. I’m looking forward to properly starting my race weekend tomorrow.”

 

Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “The morning session wasn’t bad. I’m sure we can improve quite a bit because I don’t think we got all the potential out of the car on my quickest lap. In fact, more than going for a lap time, I was trying to get a good feeling from the car, which is why I think we can make progress. Having said that, we must wait until tomorrow to see where everyone stands and we know there is still work to do. There’s not much to say about the afternoon, even if, in sessions like the second one there is always something to learn. For example we were able to do a few more laps on the intermediate tyres, after those we did in Hockenheim and that was useful for me.
As for the aero updates, it’s difficult to assess, but I can say they worked as we had expected.”

 

Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “It was quite a difficult day. We faced mixed weather conditions, the first session being relatively dry and the second rainy. Overall, from my side, we struggled with the car balance and are now working on finding a way to improve this for tomorrow. I think that I was in a better shape in the wet, so it will be interesting to see what the conditions will be like in qualifying. On the upside, we tested some new parts today which worked as expected. Hopefully, we can make a good step forward.”

 

Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “I think it was a good day for us and although Mercedes seem to be a little bit ahead we’re very close which is positive. We learnt a lot this morning during the dry running and the car was competitive straight away. We were then able to make lots of changes, some worked and some didn’t, but that is what practice sessions are for and you have to see if you can improve the balance before deciding on one direction. The car seemed to work well in both wet and dry conditions, which is very positive. Tomorrow is a new day but it all looks pretty close so it should be an interesting qualifying.”

 

Pierre Gasly, #10, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “We have a strong car and the package seems to be working well in both the dry and the wet, but we can’t take many conclusions from today with the mixed conditions. I was happy with the car in both sessions, even if we didn’t do many laps, but it’s too early to see where we stand. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the weather tomorrow but it could be really unpredictable like today with more tricky conditions. I think as expected Mercedes are really fast and we probably didn’t see Ferrari’s true pace so we’ll find out tomorrow what we can fight for, but the battle with Ferrari will be pretty tight.”

 

Daniel Ricciardo, #3, Renault F1 Team, R.S.19: “It was a pretty good day, even if the weather wasn’t great. We had a positive afternoon with the few laps we managed to complete. We made some progress after a tough morning but there’s a bit more to find tonight. I felt more confident in the car in the afternoon, so that’s promising. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, there is a chance of rain again so it could be interesting. It’s the last one before summer too, so let’s get it!”

 

Lando Norris, #4, McLaren-Renault F1 Team, MCL34: “Not the best of Fridays. FP1 wasn’t too bad but we had a hydraulic leak in FP2 which didn’t really allow me to do any laps. I didn’t really want to push when it was half-wet, half-dry. When it was raining we were on the slicks and I only got one lap in. Sometimes not getting much running is what happens. We’ll look at the data from both cars overnight. The weather tomorrow again looks a bit uncertain. Let’s see what happens.”

 

Kimi Raikkonen, #7, Alfa Romeo Racing, C38: “That was not exactly we were hoping for. We got just two laps in the dry done in the afternoon, so this session was pretty useless. But at least it’s the same for everyone.”

 

Alexander Albon, #23, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda, STR14: “In FP1 I think we struggled a little bit with the car, but we knew where we needed to improve. Coming into FP2, we made a few changes and we could see straight away, on the couple of laps I did, that it was really positive. Unfortunately, I made a mistake at the last corner where I dipped a wheel onto the grass. Honestly, it was a silly error and just a misjudgement. It certainly wasn’t ideal, but in some ways, it’s better today than in FP3. Let’s see where we will pick up from tomorrow.”

 

Kevin Magnussen, #20, Rich Energy Haas F1 Team, VF-19: “It wasn’t too bad in FP1, it was fast, but we’ll see. There’s a high chance of different conditions tomorrow, either with temperatures or weather. We’re keeping our feet on the ground because we’ve seen big changes before, where it’s just been a small change in conditions, in temperature, and it can mean a lot. We did get some wet running on in the intermediates, it’s good to feel the car on that tire, in case it’s wet tomorrow. It looked good, competitive, so overall it’s not been a bad day, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

 

Sergio Perez, #11, SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team, RP19: “We did limited running today due to the wet weather. It’s hard to learn a huge amount, but we did what we could. The difficulty is predicting where the track will be tomorrow, but I think we can be competitive whether it’s wet or dry. I think if it’s wet again it will open up more opportunities for us. There’s definitely a lot of work to do tonight to go through the data and pick out the best bits.”

 

Robert Kubica, #88, ROKiT Williams Racing, FW42: “It was a tricky Friday. During FP1, track conditions were ok with light rain and we were able to complete our programme. We were unlucky with the weather in FP2, but that’s just how it is, and it’s the same for everyone. It is kind of a home race although we are not in Poland so there are many Polish fans. I hope for dry weather this weekend so that the fans can appreciated the full potential of a Formula One car. I wish for a good weekend, for them, and for us.”