Ricciardo, Vettel atop of practices at Hungarian F1 GP
Published : 28 Jul 2018, 00:24
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) won the first and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) the second practice of the 33rd F1 Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungaroring in Mogyorod on Friday.
Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull's Australian driver, drove the fastest lap time on the first free practice. He posted a fastest time of 1:17.613 seconds.
The pilots were able to take the first practice rounds of the weekend at Hungaroring in relatively high heat at 28 degrees and 48 degrees asphalt.
For a long time, four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, standing currently at the second place, had the lead, but eventually Ricciardo reached the lap time that could not be matched by anyone else.
Vettel's disadvantage was only 0.079 seconds in second place, while third-placed Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was only 0.088 seconds away from his teammate.
The defending Champion and four-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who had previously been five-time winner of Hungaroring, finished fifth.
The second round saw the same racers, but in a somewhat different order.
Scuderia Ferrari's German driver Sebastian Vettel was the fastest in the second practice session, ahead of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo from Red Bull.
The 31 year-old Sebastian Vettel proved that there was no aftermath of his crash at Hockenheim one week ago, as he led the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in the second free Practice session.
Having posted a fastest time of 1:16.834 seconds, Vettel finished the session just 0.074 seconds ahead of Verstappen, while Ricciardo was 0.227 seconds behind the German. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth, meanwhile, 0.319 seconds behind his team mate, while drivers of Mercedes Hamilton and Botas placed fifth and sixth.
It is looking likely to be a Ferrari vs Red Bull fight in qualifying. It certainly seemed so based on the teams' qualifying simulations in second free practice session, with the fastest lap fifth-placed Lewis Hamilton behind some 0.75 seconds of Vettel, while Valtteri Bottas in sixth failed to even get within a second of the leading Ferrari.
The qualifying finals on the starting line-up will be held on Saturday afternoon, but at 11:00 am the pilots will have the opportunity to fine-tune their cars' settings.
The 33rd Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix starts on Sunday afternoon.