02/08/2008
NEWS STORY
Ahead of this morning's free practice session, the air temperature is 28 degrees C, while the track temperature is 33 degrees. It is bright and sunny, indeed, there is already a slight heat haze.
One man who has some serious work to do this morning is Sebastian Vettel, who was sidelined in both sessions yesterday, both times due to hydraulics problems.
It comes as no surprise that the German is one of the first men out on track, along with the Force Indias, Renaults, BMWs and Williams.
It will be interesting to see if some teams, most notably Ferrari, stick with some of the new devices they tried yesterday, such as the 'dorsal fin'.
Five minutes into the session, all but the Ferraris and Hondas have been out.
A garage shot of the F2008 shows that Ferrari is indeed sticking with the dorsal fin.
The tyre options this weekend are soft and super-soft, which for reasons of convenience - and to save on typing! - we will refer to as hard (soft) and soft (super-soft).
Eight minutes into the session, the Force India return to the track, Sutil leading his Italian teammate.
The German posts the first time of the day, crossing the line at 1:24.375. Fisichella posts 25.109.
The Renaults and Toro Rossos get to work. Piquet is on softs while his Spanish teammate is on hards. Elsewhere, Sutil has raised the benchmark with a 23.384.
Raikkonen leaves the pits, and on his first flying lap goes quickest in the first sector, as Vettel goes quickest in the second. Bourdais takes the top spot (22.448) ahead of his Toro Rosso teammate, but both are quickly demoted by Raikkonen, who crosses the line at 22.032.
As Vettel improves (22.041), Bourdais gets horribly crossed up but makes a great job of keeping it all under control.
Piquet clearly has a problem, having posted 52.471, he is crawling around the Hungarian track. His next lap is 49.653. Meanwhile, Alonso has posted 47.735, over 25s off the pace… what are the Renaults playing at?
Vettel goes quickest with a 21.993, as the Renaults continue to lap the Hungaroring at a snail's pace.
Nakajima goes third (22.391), ahead of Bourdais, Sutil and Fisichella as Massa comes out to play. Kovalainen is on track also.
Following a poor second sector, Massa goes ninth (32.075), as the Renaults continue to lap in the 1:47s.
Next time around, Massa goes quickest in the second sector, finally stopping the clock at 21.679 to go quickest. Elsewhere, Bourdais is at a total loss to explain his car's lack of grip, and its tendency to go where it wants to go rather than where he wants it to go.
On his first flying lap, Hamilton goes quickest (21.410), having gone quickest in the first and third sectors. The Renaults continue to mystify, both having completed 10 laps but still over 26s off the pace. Surely there is method to this madness.
It's a McLaren 1-2 as Hamilton improves with a 21.098 and Kovalainen goes second with a 21.654.
Sutil goes well wide, but is still able to catch, and leave for dead, one of the Renaults. This has to be tyre thing surely, there can be no other reason. Even if they were running with enough fuel to last the entire race (impossible we know) they wouldn't be this far off the pace.
A 21.975 sees Kubica go fourth, as Hamilton is told that he has made good gains in the second and final sectors compared to Friday.
With just a little more than half the session gone, it's: Hamilton, Kovalainen, Massa, Kubica, Vettel, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Bourdais, Glock and Heidfeld. At which point Coulthard improves to fourth (21.942).
Rosberg is asked if he wants a front wing adjustment when he pits or to go as planned, "go as planned!" is the instant response.
Raikkonen improves to fifth with a 21.876 then heads back to the pits as Glock demotes him to sixth.
Both Renaults are back on track, and in the first sector Alonso (softs) is more or less on the button. His second sector is also fairly good, the Spaniard crossing the line at 21.996 to go eleventh. Moments later, his Brazilian teammate goes fourth with a 21.679. Whatever they were doing, it seems to have worked.
Rosberg splits the McLarens with a 21.652, the German edging Kovalainen out by two-thousandth of a second. However, the Williams driver's joy is short lived, he's leapfrogged by Piquet, who posts 21.476.
Massa is back on track on softs, and by the second split he is three-thousandths up on Hamilton. At the line it's 20.796, the Brazilian goes quickest.
Thanks to yesterday's session, not to mention the support events, the track isn't as green and dusty today, consequently there are not quite as many offs.
Kovalainen improves with a 21.014, thereby demoting his McLaren teammate to third.
Rosberg (hard) is really riding the kerbs but it costs him, he fails to improve.
Vettel goes fourth with a 21.179, but almost instantly teammate Bourdais improves with a 21.179. Toro Rossos 4-5. Next time around, both drivers fail to improve, though the Frenchman goes quickest in the first sector.
Raikkonen is back on track, on hards, as Nakajima complains of oversteer but also a certain amount of understeer, listing the various turns where he's having problems.
Piquet improves to second with a 20.917 then returns to the pits. His teammate is still down in tenth, 0.8s off the pace.
Barrichello, another driver really riding the kerbs, improves to fifteenth (22.004), as Glock goes third with a 20.982. The German was on hards.
Hamilton (softs) goes quickest in the first sector, as Glock goes quickest overall, crossing the line at 20.623. However, Hamilton is on a good one, and at the line its 20.228 as he re-takes the top spot.
With just over five minutes remaining, Massa is on track on hards. There's almost an incident as the Brazilian attempts to pass Heidfeld, who is also on a hot lap, on the run up to Turn 4, both having passed Hamilton. Shortly afterwards the Ferrari passes the BMW at the chicane. We're sure there will be words about that later.
Massa improves to second with a 20.567 as Heidfeld goes sixth with a 21.096.
Nakajima (softs) improves to tenth, losing out moments later to his Williams teammate, who is also on softs.
Kubica (softs) is looking good to improve on sixteenth, however, the Pole appears to be pushing just a little too hard. Replay shows him running wide and possibly doing some doing damage to the underside of the car, as he approaches Turn 1 there are sparks coming from underneath the BMW.
The session ends, with Massa quickest, ahead of Massa, Glock, Kovalainen, Piquet, Heidfeld, Bourdais, Vettel, Raikkonen and Rosberg.