FP1: Vettel leads Red Bull Racing one-two in Hungary

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FP1: Vettel leads Red Bull Racing one-two in Hungary

Published on 26 Jul 2013 13:18
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By: Rob Veenstra

World champion Sebastian Vettel led team mate Mark Webber in a Red Bull one-two as practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix got underway in Budapest on Friday morning.

The German's best lap was 0.259s quicker than Webber's, with Kimi Raikkonen third fastest for Lotus and Fernando Alonso fourth for Ferrari.

The track remained green and very dirty all through the 90-minute session which saw ambient and track temperatures of 30 and 45 degrees Celsius respectively. It was the first time the teams got to run Pirelli's revised tyres in competitive conditions and there were no dramas to report, as everyone ran exclusively with the medium compound.

After Marussia's Rodolfo Gonzalez became the first man to set a lap time as he stood in for Max Chilton, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, Raikkonen and McLaren's Sergio Perez took turns to head the times before Webber jumped up with 1m 22.982s with half an hour remaining.

Subsequently Vettel trimmed that by 0.259s, to 1m 22.723s. Raikkonen had an interesting time, with a brief airbox fire initially, then he complained of water on the pedals, and finally he sustained a slow puncture in the right rear tyre. Nevertheless, his 1m 23.010s bodes well for Lotus's weekend as the E21 always goes better in the race. Alonso was close behind on 1m 23.099s, with Romain Grosjean fifth in the other Lotus on 1m 23.111s.

McLaren looked good, with Jenson Button taking sixth in 1m 23.370s ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil on 1m 23.390s.

Mercedes, who were banned from trying the new tyres at the recent young driver test, did the most laps of anybody, with Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton on 28 apiece as they learned as much as they could, as quickly as they could, about how the revised rubber affects the behaviour and performance of the F1W04. The German was eighth on 1m 23.531s ahead of Perez on 1m 23.591s and Pastor Maldonado on 1m 23.911s for Williams.

Esteban Gutierrez was Sauber's leader with 1m 24.119s for 11th place, chased by Valtteri Bottas on 1m 24.150 in the other Williams, Hamilton on 1m 24.157s, and Jean-Eric Vergne on 1m 24.204s. The Frenchman spun his Toro Rosso at Turn 4 late in the session, but avoided hitting anything.

Behind him, Felipe Massa was 15th on 1m 24.299s in the second Ferrari, followed by Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber on 1m 24.314s, Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso on 1m 24.383s and Paul di Resta's Force India on 1m 24.608s.

At the back Caterham led Marussia, with Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde on 1m 25.827s and 1m 26.808s respectively, and Jules Bianchi and Gonzalez on 1m 27.617s and 1m 28.927s. (Formula1.com)

F1 News Fernando Alonso Jenson Button Valtteri Bottas Felipe Massa Romain Grosjean Pastor Maldonado Daniel Ricciardo Lewis Hamilton Nico Rosberg Sebastian Vettel Sergio Perez Esteban Gutierrez Mercedes Sauber Williams Pirelli McLaren Force India Ferrari Lotus F1 Marussia