17/07/2020
NEWS STORY
The two free practice sessions in Hungary were very different: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton topped the times in the morning, which was mostly dry but cool and cloudy. In the afternoon, conditions were fully wet at the Hungaroring, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel going fastest on the Cinturato Blue wet tyre.
Hamilton's fastest time in FP1 - set on the P Zero White hard tyre - was faster than all the free practice times in Hungary last year. His team mate Valtteri Bottas was second-fastest on the medium tyre in FP1, with both Mercedes drivers around half a second clear of their closest pursuers.
Weather conditions remain uncertain for the rest of the weekend, which influenced the way that the tyres were used today. Although conditions in the afternoon were generally too wet for intermediates, a number of drivers used them in order to have an extra set provided tomorrow, as per the regulations.
Mario Isola: "It was an inconclusive day, which sets up an intriguing weekend. The weather is likely to be wet again tomorrow, and we could even see a wet race on Sunday. As a result, some drivers didn't run extensively in FP2, in order to save tyres for the rest of the weekend and preserve their cars in these challenging conditions. We did see some running on the intermediate, even though it wasn't ideally suited to the amount of water in the afternoon. This was mostly to take advantage of the regulations that provide an extra set of intermediates under these circumstances. With so many question marks around how the weekend will evolve, teams are understandably keeping all their options open despite the relatively small amount of useful data available."
Check out our Friday gallery from Budapest, here.