Hungarian GP, ​​Free Practice 1: McLaren very fast, Alonso third at 0"5

Lewis Hamilton set the best time in the first Free Practice session of the Hungarian GP. The Englishman from McLaren lapped in 1'22”821 and preceded his teammate Jenson Button by exactly one tenth.

With the sun and with all the teams using medium compound tyres, McLaren seemed unrivaled in Bupapest: the only one to resist the British cars was Fernando Alonso, who finished FP1 third at 576 thousandths. The Ferrari driver tried two different front wing configurations and lapped for 24 laps, preceding Nico Rosberg by three tenths in a Mercedes that appeared in good shape. Fifth place, just 5 thousandths behind the German, went to Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, while Michael Schumacher's other Mercedes finished just over 1" behind the leading duo.

Felipe Massa was also very busy for 25 laps with Ferrari experimenting with a new front wing and finished in seventh place, 1"083, half a tenth behind Schumi. Eighth place for Kimi Raikkonen with the Lotus at 1"a62, while the top 10 is closed by the Finnish driver from Williams Valtteri Bottas (the test driver who took over from Bruno Senna for these free practices) and finally Sergio Perez with the Sauber. There are many considerations to make, starting with the serious engine cooling problems Raikkonen had which forced him to spend a long period in the pits. Furthermore, the Red Bulls' absence from the top ten stands out, with Mark Webber 13th and Sebastian Vettel 15th, both 1 seconds behind the McLarens. Effect of the new engine mapping imposed by the FIA ​​or pre-tactical to hide the true potential? The fact is that McLaren impressed at the Hungaroring: we'll see in FP7 this afternoon if with the Soft tires (saved by all the teams) anyone will be able to counter them.

Lorena Bianchi

Here are the FP1 times:

Pos Driver Team Time Lap Gap 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.821 30 2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m22.922s + 0.101 24 3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m23.397s + 0.576 24 4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m23.628s + 0.807 29 5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m23.633s + 0.812 24 6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m23.845s + 1.024 26 7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m23.904s + 1.083 25 8. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m23.983 1.162s + 24 9 1. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 24.152m1.331s + 24 10 1. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 24.268m1.447s + 27 11 1. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 24.300m1.479s + 23 12 1. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 24.394m1.573s + 19 13 1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 24.546m1.725s + 24 14 1. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 24.559m1.738s + 22 15 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 24.608m1.787s + 25 16 1. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 25.354m2.533s + 25 17 1. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 25.559m2.738s + 27 18 1. Jules Bianchi Force India-Mercedes 25.715m2.894s + 26 19 1. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 26.440m3.619s + 27 20 1. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 26.705m3.884s + 23 21 1. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 26.755m3.934s + 28 22 1. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 27.015m4.194s + 24 23 1. Pedro de la Rosa HRT -Cosworth 27.101m4.280s + 21 24 1. Dani Clos HRT-Cosworth 28.176m5.355s + 24 XNUMX