Sebastian Vettel led the way in the first practice session in Hungary on Friday, ahead of his Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber, a tenth slower. There was then a gap of an entire second back to Robert Kubica’s Renault. Jenson Button was fourth in his McLaren ahead of Rubens Barrichello’s Williams, Pedro de la Rosa’s Sauber, Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari and the two Mercedes cars of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, in their usual order. Nico Hulkenberg rounded off the top 10 in the second Williams-Cosworth.
Force India had a blown diffuser for Adrian Sutil, which put him 11th in the first session, but the second car was with the conventional layout. This was driven in the first session by the team’s test driver Paul Di Resta, who ended up 15th, four places (and half a second) slower than the German.
Felipe Massa was 12th ahead of Vitaly Petrov’s Renault, the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi, di Resta and the two Toro Rossos of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari. Lewis Hamilton was 18th but is sure to improve in the afternoon while the Lotuses, Virgins and HRTs were in their usual order: Jarno Trulli leading Heikki Kovalainen; Timo Glock ahead of Lucas di Grassi and Bruno Senna in front of Sakon Yamamoto.
‘In their usual order’ saucer of milk anyone?
1. i don’t know how much that blown diffuser is gonna help force india in the saturday’s qualifying
2. with williams and sauber considerably increasing their performance, force india will be under severe pressure to match them….
practice 2 out of order?
Ginger: It made me chuckle ! I wish i’d put £50 on Nico to outqualify Michael almost 100% so far this season !
Hi Joe,
Somebody should remind Schumacher that if the unthinkable had happened on Sunday as a result of his reckless action he could now be facing a manslaughter charge. The FIA stewards are not the only judiciary involved in such matters, the laws of the land do not stop at the edge of the track.