Brendan Lines. July 18, 2020 07:45am
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas expectedly topped Friday’s FP1, ominous clouds threatened the Hungaroring but did not dampen the reigning World Champions +0.527 gap over Racing Point, while Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo was quick from the outset going fifth fastest.
Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault came to grips with the Hungaroring immediate posting a fifth fastest 1:17.200, running the medium tyre on predominantly low-fuel runs.
“The morning was pretty good and I felt we got into it right from the get-go. It was a bit like the first session in Austria, when we got into the track quite quickly and found a solid base set-up straight away,” Ricciardo said after FP1.
Ricciardo finished ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in P10 and was the fastest non-Mercedes powered car for the session.
Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) Renault F1 Team RS20. Hungarian Grand Prix, Friday 17th July 2020. Budapest, Hungary – Image: Renaultsport.com
The curious case from FP1 was Hamilton’s fastest time was set on the hard tyres, his best time 1:16.003s would have comfortably been a top ten time against 2019 qualifying times.
A clear sign Mercedes might just be teasing their outright pace ahead of Saturday’s qualifying as Valtteri Bottas was just +0.086 off Hamilton’s time.
There was a high amount of degradation on track as Racing Point’s Sergio Perez delaminated the front right of his soft-shod RP20 after a massive lock-up at Turn 1, but the Mexican went back out to go third fastest with a 1:16.530s.
Perez’s teammate Lance Stroll was four tenths back in P4, sealing a top four lock-out of Mercedes engine cars.
Sergio Perez shreds a tyre at Turn 1 – Image: F1.com
There were promising signs for Ferrari as Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc shared P7 and P8 respectively, Vettel’s time was +1.235 off Hamilton’s time, as the team appears to making its new upgrades work nicely.
Red Bull Team principal Christian Horner insists his cars were testing set ups on high-fuel runs, fastest of the Red Bulls was Max Verstappen with a 1:17.435 for P8, while Alex Albon seemed to struggle with traffic back in P13.
McLaren’s MCL35 didn’t adapt so well to the Hungaroring’s high downforce layout, as both Lando Norris (P9) and Carlos Sainz (P11) struggled for balance in the car running over +1.5s adrift of the Mercedes.
Robert Kubica stepped into Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa for FP1, he spun as the rain began to smatter the green track surface, but appeared to be gathering data on high-fuel runs finishing P19 while Antonio Giovinazzi was P17.
Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri had a problem with an engine sensor that retired him from the session, teammate Daniil Kyvat finished the session in P16.
A surprise for the session was rookie Nicholas Latifi finishing in P15 ahead of teammate George Russell in P18, Russell still remains unbeaten by any teammate in qualifying.
FP1 full results:
| POS | DRIVER | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:16.003 | 37 | ||
| 2 | 1:16.089 | +0.086s | 37 | |
| 3 | 1:16.530 | +0.527s | 20 | |
| 4 | 1:16.967 | +0.964s | 35 | |
| 5 | 1:17.200 | +1.197s | 28 | |
| 6 | 1:17.238 | +1.235s | 26 | |
| 7 | 1:17.404 | +1.401s | 29 | |
| 8 | 1:17.435 | +1.432s | 28 | |
| 9 | 1:17.523 | +1.520s | 26 | |
| 10 | 1:17.615 | +1.612s | 35 | |
| 11 | 1:17.675 | +1.672s | 32 | |
| 12 | 1:17.713 | +1.710s | 35 | |
| 13 | 1:17.727 | +1.724s | 28 | |
| 14 | 1:17.890 | +1.887s | 35 | |
| 15 | 1:17.969 | +1.966s | 31 | |
| 16 | 1:18.292 | +2.289s | 35 | |
| 17 | 1:18.425 | +2.422s | 30 | |
| 18 | 1:18.574 | +2.571s | 29 | |
| 19 | 1:19.150 | +3.147s | 26 |
Grandprixnet.com 