Leclerc on top for Ferrari at hot Hungaroring

2017 F1 season

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Charles Leclerc led the first day of testing at the Hungaroring for Ferrari in very hot conditions, lapping one-and-a-half seconds off last weekend’s pole position time.

Hungaroring test day one in pictures
A quickest time of 1’17.746 in the closing minutes of the test put the Ferrari driver on top as temperatures reached a scorching 38C at the track. Leclerc took the top spot away from Stoffel Vandoorne, who ended up second quickest for McLaren.

Valtteri Bottas completed a mammoth programme of tyre testing for Pirelli. He logged 155 laps in the W08, equivalent to more than two 70-lap grand prix distances.

GP3 points leader George Russell made his official F1 test debut in the other W08 and also covered over 100 laps.

Renault’s Nicholas Latifi was limited to 54 laps due to a mid-session engine change. Toro Rosso driver Sean Gelael also lost time due to an oil leak on his STR12.

The test will conclude tomorrow and include Robert Kubica making his return in a current-specification Formula One car with Renault.

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLaps
132Charles LeclercFerrariSF70H1’17.74698
22Stoffel VandoorneMcLarenMCL321’17.8340.08872
377Valtteri BottasMercedesW081’18.7320.986155
463George RussellMercedesW081’19.2311.485119
518Lance StrollWilliamsFW401’19.8662.120138
634Nikita MazepinForce IndiaVJM101’19.9102.16452
745Nicholas LatifiRenaultRS171’20.3022.55654
838Sean GelaelToro RossoSTR121’20.3412.595101
935Lucas AuerForce IndiaVJM101’20.5632.81754
1050Santino FerrucciHaasVF-171’21.1853.439102
1133Max VerstappenRed BullRB131’21.2283.48258
1236Gustav MaljaSauberC361’21.5033.757108

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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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25 comments on “Leclerc on top for Ferrari at hot Hungaroring”

  1. Jeez, Russell’s helmet from in front reminds me so much of Schumi’s in that Mercedes…

    1. I know, I had a double take to verify!

    2. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      1st August 2017, 20:32

      Not long ago we were saying Vandoorne was something special after his owm record breaking F2 season but he’s shown adapting to the big league isn’t a given. I agree though they should be brave and put LeClerc in the main team straight away

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        1st August 2017, 20:35

        Sorry this is meant for @hugh11 below

      2. Vandoorne was 22/23 during that season though, and had already had a season in GP2. Leclerc’s doing it in his first season in F2 at 19.
        I reckon they’ll put Leclerc in the Sauber next year though, as Marchionne did say they’d be a kind of Junior Team with the new engine deal, so it’ll be interesting to see how they go about that.

        1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
          1st August 2017, 21:23

          Vasseur knows the score with juniors too great reaction discussing LeClercs pole advantage with will Buxton https://youtu.be/M9__dnQbeSs (very end)

        2. @hugh11 Easy. Mercedes paid Sauber to give Wehrlein a seat *this* year because Manor folded (or was bound to fold when the deal was penned) so that he would remain in F1. With Sauber going for an up-to-date Ferrari engine next year, Wehrlein will almost definitely be out of a seat and Mercedes will have to shuffle its drivers around amongst their engine customers to find a seat for him (Perez being 25+ to Williams & Wehrlein to Force 1?). Ericsson and Leclerc seem to be a given at Sauber next year as Giovinazzi has been far too prone to shunts after his impressive Australia debut and Ferrari historically not being keen on Italian drivers.

  2. A 1.17.7 on softs on your first day in a 2017 F1 car… This kid is special. Accounting for the difference in tyre performance (about 7 tenths), he’d be just 8 tenths of Vettel and 6 tenths off Raikkonen after his first day, and unless they just copied Seb’s setup for him, he’d have likely lost another couple of tenths from that. Get him in F1 next season, I don’t even care if you chuck him in the Ferrari, I reckon he can handle it.

    1. Just remember the track has rubbered in so it will be atleast a second faster than qualifying day.

  3. Any info on McLaren Honda PU version they ran today?

  4. Man this kid caught my eye ever since his Bahrain 2017 overtakes show ,

    His records look impressive but how good is he in terms of mistakes/ consistency ? Could he challenge the likes of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton ?

    1. Can’t really remember a mistake from him in F2 other than leaving the door open for Canamasas at the final corner in Silverstone.
      I think he definitely can challenge them. Hopefully for most of their careers, Ferrari and Red Bull are always competitive, then with Leclerc v Verstappen we could see one of the great rivalries. Maybe if Mercedes are there too then Ocon could get in on that rivalry. But Leclerc is seriously special.

    2. Consistency is something Charles Leclerc has got much better at over the last two years. In 2014/2015 he was apt to go from unbeatable races to anonymous ones (and back) without warning. However, in 2016 he made progress with developing consistency and in 2017 it’s really shown. Now his mistakes are few and far between, and ones he tends to fix before they cause him significant problems.

  5. Why is Mercedes the only team running two cars?!

    Mercedes did a combined 264 laps today (!!), Ferrari a total of 98 laps and RedBull a total of 58 laps, both running just one car. How do they expect to catch up like this?

    1. Bottas was testing for pirelli. there was no development for merc on that car

      1. Ah ok. Didn’t know that, tnx.

      2. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
        1st August 2017, 20:15

        @cplchanb But can’t Mercedes gather useful information from that car anyway?

        1. I know that Pirelli does not disclose what type of tires they hand over to the teams that test them.

        2. I’m sure they can, though due to the tyre mystery and total lack of control over the program, it’s nowhere near as advantageous as it looks.

  6. George Russell in red helmet looks like Michael is back on track…

  7. First time since 1981 that two Canadians officially on track at the same time (or at least same day). Last were Villeneuve brothers Gilles and Jacques Sr in Las Vegas.

  8. I watched the F2 feature race this week and LeClerc was VERY impressive. He really looked like he was on another level to all the other driver, esp. the way he scythed through field after starting from 19th (due to a pre-race technical penalty). The move when he overtook 3 cars in one move was electric. Today’s test is just a beginning but it’s at least a partial confirmation of his F1 abilities.

  9. I’m surprised they’ve left Robert Kubica doing his “current F1 car testing” until the last day. Shouldn’t they have done it on the first or second day so that if there is some sort of problem then he could do more laps on the last day of the testing.

    1. Yeh he needs more laps than latifi today to get the 300km for superlicence

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