Hungarian GP Bridgestone Friday Notes

Budapest, August/ 13/ 1999 1999 HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE

A damp Friday in Budapest

A light shower of rain arrived over the Hungaroring shortly after the start of the second session of untimed practice in preparation for the Hungarian GP. However, the rain did not prevent the leading drivers from setting their fastest times this afternoon. World championship leader Eddie Irvine was fastest, with a time 2.5 seconds slower than Mika Hakkinen's 1998 pole position, while Hakkinen himself spun off the road halfway through the afternoon session and was unable to take any further part.

Yoshihiko Ichikawa, Bridgestone Motorsport Technical Manager: "Today almost half of the drivers tried the Extra Soft compound, but as we expected they found big understeering. Under high temperatures there is also the possibility of big degradation on this compound, which leads us to believe that most of the teams will choose to qualify and race on the Soft option. However, after about 15 laps the Extra Soft come into a better balance. As usual, the circuit was very dirty today, so we anticipate that the teams will not be able to make an accurate comparison of the two compounds until tomorrow."

Ross Brawn, Ferrari Technical Director: "We have had a good day, with Eddie leading the practice times. We used one set of the harder Bridgestone tyres today, and our experience with the softer tyre up to this moment suggests that it will not be the right choice for the race. Mika is obviously taking a little longer than Eddie to get used to the car on a track where he has not driven it before, but he is already making good progress. This afternoon we were a little concerned about the rain arriving too soon to get our work done, but fortunately it held off long enough for us to do the job."

Steven Hallam, West McLaren Mercedes Chief engineers: "Mika spun off this afternoon at the top chicane, which was unfortunate because he had to abandon the car there and he lost the last 30 minutes of the second session. This morning, as usual at this circuit, most teams waited until the dust had blown off the track and the surface had 'rubbered in' before going for a serious run in the last ten minutes or so. Because of the threat of rain this afternoon, most teams were quick off the mark to start setting times, as a result of which the rain did not affect our programmes too seriously when it eventually arrived after 15 minutes or so. We still have to analyse the data we accumulated today, in order to establish the true performance of the car. For Hungary, this has been a normal first day."

TEMPERATURES    AIR             TRACK   WEATHER 
Morning         21:-20: 23:-25: Cloudy - dry    
Afternoon       20:-20: 24:-24: Cloudy- dry, then damp