Practice report
Formula 1 Hungarian GP
Hungarian GP: Hamilton tops FP1 as Bottas hits trouble
Lewis Hamilton set the pace in opening practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix while Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Valtteri Bottas failed to post a time after an engine problem.
Scott Mitchell
Edited: Aug 2, 2019, 1:09 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Hamilton headed a three-team fight at the top of the times in the Hungaroring's first 90-minute session, besting the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari.
The trio was covered by 0.166s of a second around the 2.7-mile circuit as Pierre Gasly completed the top four.
Charles Leclerc was out of position in the second Ferrari in sixth and that, combined with Bottas's trouble, allowed Kevin Magnussen to kick-start Haas's weekend with the fifth-fastest time.
The session began with a high risk of rain and a few drops fell in the first sector almost as soon as running started.
That did not translate into a downpour though and most teams were able to continue with their early installations uninterrupted.
However, Mercedes committed to changing Bottas's engine after two exploratory laps, which mean he sat out the rest of the session.
The team reported a problem with Bottas's original engine that it could not trace, so switched to another Friday engine already in the pool to give itself more time to analyse the issue.
Vettel headed the chase of Hamilton for much of the session, 0.166s behind, before Verstappen managed to improve his own time by a tenth to edge ahead of the Ferrari by just 0.001s.
Verstappen escaped two spins in the session without harm: he lost the rear of his Red Bull exiting the final corner early on, then towards the end found himself facing the wrong way on the run-off for the 90-degree right hander at the start of the final sector.
Leclerc was well adrift of the leading times after a scruffy lap on soft tyres left him 1.1s off the pace, and though he made a modest improvement before the session's ended he could not climb above Magnussen and ended up 0.955s off the pace.
Nico Hulkenberg led Renault's charge in seventh, 0.48s slower than midfielder leader Haas but ahead of the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz.
Kimi Raikkonen completed the top 10 for Alfa Romeo.
Though teammate Magnussen was fifth, equipped with Haas's latest upgrade introduced in Germany last week, Romain Grosjean struggled in the second Haas and finished outside the top 10.
Grosjean is running the aero spec Haas started the season with as the team bids to get a better understanding of its race-pace problems.
However, Grosjean reported he had "everything: understeer, oversteer, it's like Monza wings" during the session, and wound up 12th-fastest.
At the tail end of the field, George Russell gave Williams early hope of fighting at the back of the midfield by lapping 2.4s off Hamilton's best and outpacing the Racing Point of Lance Stroll.
Early in the session, Stroll had a spin onto the grass exiting the chicane in the middle of the lap, but like Verstappen avoided any damage.
Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap 1 Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes 41 1'17.233 2 Max Verstappen
Red Bull 28 1'17.398 0.165 3 Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari 25 1'17.399 0.166 4 Pierre Gasly
Red Bull 25 1'17.682 0.449 5 Kevin Magnussen
Haas 31 1'17.942 0.709 6 Charles Leclerc
Ferrari 29 1'18.188 0.955 7 Nico Hulkenberg
Renault 31 1'18.417 1.184 8 Lando Norris
McLaren 34 1'18.531 1.298 9 Carlos Sainz Jr.
McLaren 23 1'18.702 1.469 10 Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo 32 1'18.787 1.554 11 Daniel Ricciardo
Renault 30 1'18.894 1.661 12 Romain Grosjean
Haas 32 1'18.973 1.740 13 Daniil Kvyat
Toro Rosso 33 1'18.982 1.749 14 Alex Albon
Toro Rosso 28 1'19.223 1.990 15 Sergio Perez
Racing Point 20 1'19.325 2.092 16 Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo 24 1'19.488 2.255 17 George Russell
Williams 33 1'19.649 2.416 18 Lance Stroll
Racing Point 34 1'19.722 2.489 19 Robert Kubica
Williams 30 1'20.322 3.089 20 Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes 2 View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article F1's mooted 22-race calendar could hinge on engine life
Next article Grosjean was more "worried" about losing Haas drive in 2018
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Scott Mitchell
Alfa Romeo must do better in "chaotic" races - Vasseur
Formula 1
Formula 1
Alfa Romeo must do better in "chaotic" races - Vasseur
Honda: Verstappen relationship 'like a young Senna'
Formula 1
Formula 1
Honda: Verstappen relationship 'like a young Senna'
Key team personnel shouldn't be F1 boss - Ferrari
Formula 1
Formula 1
Key team personnel shouldn't be F1 boss - Ferrari
Latest news
Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
4 h
Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season
Tyler Reddick really needed NASCAR Phoenix win for several reasons
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
4 h
Tyler Reddick really needed NASCAR Phoenix win for several reasons
Bubba Wallace laments mistake after heartbreaking Phoenix loss
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
5 h
Bubba Wallace laments mistake after heartbreaking Phoenix loss
NASCAR is getting the championship finish it has pursued since 1992
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
5 h
NASCAR is getting the championship finish it has pursued since 1992
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe