Rosberg fastest as Hamilton crashes out

2016 Hungarian Grand Prix second practice

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For the first time since 2013 someone other than Lewis Hamilton headed a practice session at the Hungaroring after the Mercedes driver crashed on his fifth lap.

Hamilton was on course to set the quickest lap time in the early stages of the session when his W07 snapped sideways entering turn 11. He skidded across the run-off and make contact with the barrier.

But although red flags were immediately shown to stop the session, Hamilton was able to drive his car back to the pits. Nonetheless he took no further part in the session as Mercedes investigated the extent of the damage.

That left Nico Rosberg to lead the way for Mercedes. While Hamilton was unable to set a time on the super-soft tyres, Rosberg lowered the best time of the weekend so far to a 1’20.435.

Red Bull revealed their one-lap pace on the same rubber but Daniel Ricciardo was not able to get within half a second of Rosberg’s time. The only other drivers to lap the Hungaroring within a second of Rosberg’s time was Sebastian Vettel.

Despite only doing a single flying lap Hamilton ended the session fifth-quickest behind Max Verstappen, who made a mistake on his quickest run.

As in the first session the McLarens were the fourth-quickest team. Fernando Alonso, running with a new power unit after Honda spotted a potential problem developing during first practice, was seventh behind Kimi Raikkonen, and less than a tenth faster than team mate Jenson Button. The Force India pair completed the top ten.

The final stages of the session saw reliability problems force Felipe Nasr’s Sauber and Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Toro Rosso to stop.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
16Nico RosbergMercedes1’20.43545
23Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’21.0300.59536
35Sebastian VettelFerrari1’21.3480.91331
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’21.7701.33535
544Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’21.9601.5254
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’22.0581.62346
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’22.3281.89321
822Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’22.3871.95234
927Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’22.4492.01441
1011Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’22.6532.21838
1121Esteban GutierrezHaas-Ferrari1’22.6732.23838
1219Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’22.6812.24639
1355Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Ferrari1’22.6892.25424
1477Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’22.7732.33838
158Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’22.8642.42928
1626Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Ferrari1’22.9482.51343
1720Kevin MagnussenRenault1’23.3472.91241
189Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’23.4373.00236
1930Jolyon PalmerRenault1’23.5283.09312
2012Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’23.9863.55131
2194Pascal WehrleinManor-Mercedes1’23.9923.55722
2288Rio HaryantoManor-Mercedes1’24.2653.83036

Second practice visual gaps

Nico Rosberg – 1’20.435

+0.595 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’21.030

+0.913 Sebastian Vettel – 1’21.348

+1.335 Max Verstappen – 1’21.770

+1.525 Lewis Hamilton – 1’21.960

+1.623 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’22.058

+1.893 Fernando Alonso – 1’22.328

+1.952 Jenson Button – 1’22.387

+2.014 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’22.449

+2.218 Sergio Perez – 1’22.653

+2.238 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’22.673

+2.246 Felipe Massa – 1’22.681

+2.254 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’22.689

+2.338 Valtteri Bottas – 1’22.773

+2.429 Romain Grosjean – 1’22.864

+2.513 Daniil Kvyat – 1’22.948

+2.912 Kevin Magnussen – 1’23.347

+3.002 Marcus Ericsson – 1’23.437

+3.093 Jolyon Palmer – 1’23.528

+3.551 Felipe Nasr – 1’23.986

+3.557 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’23.992

+3.830 Rio Haryanto – 1’24.265

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Rosberg fastest as Hamilton crashes out”

  1. Love this season, never seems to stop messing with the narratives

  2. Crashing out on FP2 is not the best way to start the WE.

    1. True. But when you finish fifth, after having done only 4 laps, on a track that cleans up massively over a session, that’s pretty remarkable. He’s still got to be the favorite.

      1. that’s not remarkable – it just shows how far Merc are ahead of the rest

        1. … and there’s another Merc out there.

  3. Another unforced error by Hamilton, hopefully it won affect his performance for tomorrow. Nico suffered the same at Silverstone and he was no where to be found afterwards, tho it could’ve been the conditions on track rather than the lack of run during friday.

    We should keep the statistics over a season like in tennis! I reckon Lewis’ got a lot more unforced errors than in the previous 2 years.

    1. I agree, He seems to have a lot more unforced errors this year. However, he still seems faster than Nico. If Hamilton removes the unforced errors, he will win by miles.
      McLaren look ok this weekend. (In comparison with how bad they have looked in the past year.) Haas seems to be good too which suggest they have a decent car when they can make it work. Ricciardo seems miles in front of Verstappen in both sessions too. I was hoping that both Red Bulls might be up there challenging the Mercs this weekend, but it seems RB and particularly Verstappen is a step to far off the pace for now.
      Ferrari not so good this weekend. I think the engine is ok, but that Ferrari chassis is no good right now it seems. Look at McLaren by comparison. They are up the order this weekend and Ferrari are just hanging in there on a track that rewards a good chassis.

      1. Matthew Coyne
        22nd July 2016, 15:10

        Agree, and it’s sessions like this which should shut up all the people who seem to think Merc are only where they are because of the engine – This circuit shows more than any other that their chassis is also class leading, in my opinion it’s the best in the field – evidence throughout the past couple of years has shown it is generally quicker than Red Bull in aero dominant sectors.

  4. pastaman (@)
    22nd July 2016, 15:47

    I’m surprised to see Toro Rosso so far down the order again. Have this year’s engines progressed that much from the 2015 Ferrari already? Even so, you’d expect them to do better on a track like Hungary

  5. ColdFly F1 (@)
    22nd July 2016, 16:17

    I don’t think it is that dramatic, @pastaman.
    Chili at 1:22.6 is as fast as Checo in 11th and only 0.3 behind Alo in 7th.
    We never expected a STR to be in the top 6 anyway.

  6. The HUGE run-off didn’t seem to have much effect here

  7. Looks like another Mercedes easy 1-2, the real fight will be between the Red Bulls for the last place on the podium.

    The Ferrari fans must be frustrated, somehow they have managed to fall behind to third while using the most development tokens. Hopefully they will get better from tomorrow as the temperatures will be higher, and as we all know Ferrari has troubles warming up the Supersoft and Ultrasoft tyres, and give us at least something to watch for (Red Bull vs. Ferrari) in the qualy.

    1. I think Ferrari’s decision to use up most or all their tokens this year is correct because there isn’t any requirement for them next year. The only valid reason I can think of for not using them up is because you don’t have any new “better” engine on the drawing board.

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