Hungarian GP | First practice session
The Hungarian Grand Prix has started on Friday with FP1 and rain.
The Friday morning in the paddock was very hot and sunny. However, right to the start of the first practice, it was raining at the circuit. In the beginning it was easy and didn’t affect drivers results a lot, but to the second part of the session it intensified and made teams to suspend the work.
Few laps after the start Valtteri Bottas went to the boxes and stayed there till the end. There were some technical issues on his car, namely with power unit. The team made a decision to swapping it in the other PU already in the pool. So, that means Valtteri won’t get a penalty. Bottas’ teammate Lewis Hamilton had some issues with the breaks. Although he has managed to finish the session on P1.
Alfa Romeo was testing new rear wings during the session. However, this work went mostly to the Kimi Raikkonen, since Antonio Giovinazzi spent the first part of the practice in the boxes.
On 29th minute there was an information about heavier rain in 5-6 minutes. It was true – the rain intensified and the drivers hid in the garages.
The second wave has started on 46th minute with Giovinazzi appearing on the track. However, the Italian came back to the boxes very soon, literally in two minutes.
After spending the first part of FP1 in the boxes Sebastian Vettel went to the track. Few attempts and he set the second time of the session, but then was overtaken by Max Verstappen. Ferrari brought some updates in Hungary, and in FP1 Charles Leclerc has tested a new boomerang wing and barge board upgrade, Vettel was still on the older specification.
As for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, the first session of the weekend became ambiguous for them. On the one hand Max made it in P2, but at the same time he had a few spins during the practise and complained about the sensetivity of the car at turns.
Not the best session for the Racing Point drivers which were spinning on the track few times. However, drivers avoided serious damages and could keep, but not long – 20 minutes before the finish the team stopped the work on the track.
The full classification of FP1:
