Red Bull lead Ferrari in first practice

2017 Hungarian Grand Prix first practice

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Mercedes had to settle for third-fastest time as practice began for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo got within five-thousandths of a second of the 13-year-old track record at the Hungaroring as he headed the first 90 minutes of running. With track temperatures nudging towards 30C, Ricciardo set a best time of 1’18.486 on the super-soft compounds.

Hungarian Grand Prix practice in pictures
That dislodged the previous best time of the session which had been set by Lewis Hamilton. Before the session was over Kimi Raikkonen had also beat the Mercedes driver’s time, ending the session second overall.

McLaren were emphatically the ‘best of the rest’, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne setting the seventh and eighth-quickest times. The latter spun at turn two early in the session after a suspected engine problem. The Renault pair completed the top ten.

Low-grip conditions at the Hungaroring caught several drivers out including the Haas pair. Romain Grosjean made light contact with the barrier and was able to resume work later in the session.

But test driver Antonio Giovinazzi, in his second appearance for the team, made more substantial contact with the barrier. He ripped the front-left wheel off Kevin Magnussen’s car and the session was briefly stopped so the VF-17 could be recovered.

The red flags flew again at the end of the session when Jolyon Palmer damaged his Renault at turn four. He ripped the front wing off his car and came to a stop to avoid causing more damage.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
13Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’18.48631
27Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’18.7200.23420
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’18.8580.37231
433Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’19.1620.67627
577Valtteri BottasMercedes1’19.2480.76230
65Sebastian VettelFerrari1’19.5631.07721
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’19.9871.50121
82Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’20.0051.51924
927Nico HulkenbergRenault1’20.1501.66425
1030Jolyon PalmerRenault1’20.4611.97527
1119Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’20.5402.05428
1211Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’20.5742.08823
1326Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault1’20.7802.29427
1455Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’20.9172.43125
1518Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’20.9742.48829
168Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’21.3132.82720
1734Alfonso CelisForce India-Mercedes1’21.6023.11624
189Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’21.7853.29931
1950Antonio GiovinazziHaas-Ferrari1’22.2513.7658
2094Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’22.4904.00429

First practice visual gaps

Daniel Ricciardo – 1’18.486

+0.234 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’18.720

+0.372 Lewis Hamilton – 1’18.858

+0.676 Max Verstappen – 1’19.162

+0.762 Valtteri Bottas – 1’19.248

+1.077 Sebastian Vettel – 1’19.563

+1.501 Fernando Alonso – 1’19.987

+1.519 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’20.005

+1.664 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’20.150

+1.975 Jolyon Palmer – 1’20.461

+2.054 Felipe Massa – 1’20.540

+2.088 Sergio Perez – 1’20.574

+2.294 Daniil Kvyat – 1’20.780

+2.431 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’20.917

+2.488 Lance Stroll – 1’20.974

+2.827 Romain Grosjean – 1’21.313

+3.116 Alfonso Celis – 1’21.602

+3.299 Marcus Ericsson – 1’21.785

+3.765 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’22.251

+4.004 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’22.490

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

Best time by tyre

DriverTeamBest super-soft timeSuper-soft gapBest soft timeSoft gapBest medium timeMedium gap
Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’18.8580.372None1’35.9165.538
Valtteri BottasMercedes1’19.2480.762None1’35.2304.852
Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1’18.4861’19.920None
Max VerstappenRed Bull1’19.1620.676None1’30.378
Sebastian VettelFerrari1’19.5631.077None4’08.096157.718
Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’18.7200.234None4’03.096152.718
Sergio PerezForce India1’20.5742.088NoneNone
Alfonso CelisForce India1’21.6023.116NoneNone
Felipe MassaWilliams1’20.5402.054None1’30.8070.429
Lance StrollWilliams1’20.9742.488None6’31.096300.718
Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1’19.9871.501NoneNone
Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren1’20.0051.519None5’09.096218.718
Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso1’20.9172.4311’22.5162.5963’59.096148.718
Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1’20.7802.2941’22.1872.2672’03.57833.2
Romain GrosjeanHaasNone1’21.3131.3934’28.096177.718
Antonio GiovinazziHaasNone1’22.2512.3314’01.096150.718
Nico HulkenbergRenault1’20.1501.664None2’11.41241.034
Jolyon PalmerRenault1’20.4611.975None1’58.00727.629
Marcus EricssonSauber1’21.7853.299NoneNone
Pascal WehrleinSauber1’22.4904.004NoneNone

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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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24 comments on “Red Bull lead Ferrari in first practice”

  1. Be nice to see the bull win this gp just on pace

    1. They have not won on pace since 2013. All wins since have been as a result of issues for faster cars.

      1. Which makes Monaco 2016 even more heartbreaking; had Ricciardo won it would have been on genuine merit

        1. Oh man no one can forget that, still disappointed about it even today. @celicadion23

  2. I think Antonio deserves another chance..

    1. After another crash, I fear he is a Haas been.

    2. Well, apart from a great weekend at Australia he has crashed quite a few times now… But who knows, maybe next year Sauber will run two Ferrari jr’s in Giovinazzi and Leclerc?

      1. Weren’t they going to use Honda for next year? Not that it would matters for using other teams junior drivers, as they are using Mercedes junior driver now with Ferrari engines. But I would imagine that they as independent team, they would want driver with at least one experienced race driver.

        1. Just been confirmed that Sauber will be using up to date Ferrari engines for next season.

        2. Their new teamboss (Frederique Vasseur) came in 2 weeks ago in place of Kaltenborn (who had signed the deal with Honda) and he didn’t want to have Honda so he terminated that contract this week and signed an extension with Ferrari

          1. Ahh, just saw the article. So they carry on with Ferrari. Your point have then more merit, maybe they have some Ferrari junior drive deal included to contract.

  3. Raikkonen should win this race man..I hope:p

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      28th July 2017, 13:27

      Been too long since his last win

    2. Don’t have to tell me again…

  4. Nice to see RedBull on top and also McLaren right behind the top 6! Hope it’s legitimate in both cases.

    1. FreddyVictor
      28th July 2017, 10:50

      yeah, thats a nice surprise for McHonda

      hope they can sustain it thru to the race !

  5. I wonder if Lewis and Kimi also set their times on the super soft tyre. It should be a cracking quail for tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised if the top 3 on the grid are from 3 different teams. I’m hoping Max finally has a clean weekend as well.

    Looks like Mclaren’s risk of changing Alonso’s engine in Britain for Hungary is going to pay off (if it doesn’t retire sometime later in the race weekend of course).

    For all the people who are saying that Honda isn’t solely to blame for McLaren Honda’s poor performance really need to take a look at their performance in chassis dependant circuits. On power circuits McLaren Honda are usually 2nd to last and on chassis circuits they are generally the 4th quickest.

    1. @todfod They did – have updated the article with the list of best times by tyre.

      1. @keithcollantine Could you do that sepperately perhaps?

        What I mean is one regular timing sheet with the fastest laptimes and tire they are set on and then a second grahp with fastest laptimes per compound.

    2. @todfod I think indeed McLaren their chassis is at the top half of the field, however that would be expected. They have not suddenly lost all knowledge on how to build a car, they still have way more resources than Force India or Williams. However, I don’t think it’s that black and white in saying it is good. The engine under delivers meaning they’re not taking corners at ‘normal’ speeds either.

  6. I won’t get my hopes up too high, but it’s great to see all three teams up there with a shout at a win this weekend.

    Mclaren certainly showing that their chassis is in a good place, and Renault proving that Silverstone wasn’t a fluke either.

    Ricciardo seems to have an affinity with this track too, would be great to see him take another victory here.

  7. 20 years ago but for his Judd to fail on the last lap. Would that we have such a surprise this weekend (minus the engine failure of course)!

    1. It was a Yamaha, not a Judd but I would love to see a repeat of that with Alonso as Hill!

      1. Sorry Matthijs, it was a Judd engine even if it was labelled Yamaha OX11D, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judd_%28engine%29

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