Raikkonen fastest in Hungarian GP first practice

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in Friday's first practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, setting his best lap of 1:21.624 right at the end. He was nearly eight tenths up on Honda third driver Anthony Davidson and the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher was third quickest.

Kimi Raikkonen.

Photo by xpb.cc.

The weather was uncharacteristically cool with a track temperature of 24 degrees. The team No.3s got to work, one short as BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica will race this weekend, replacing Jacques Villeneuve who apparently hasn't recovered from his Hockenheim crash. BMW opted not to run a third car.

Davidson, Alex Wurz (Williams), Neel Jani (Toro Rosso), Markus Winkelhock (MF1) and Robert Doornbos (Red Bull) were quickly out on track, followed by the McLarens of Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa for installation laps. Wurz took the top of the times, 1:28.102 and Davidson was over a second off.

Wurz lowered his time to 1:26.568, while Takuma Sato was the first Super Aguri to appear. Davidson also improved his time and narrowed the gap to Wurz to less than a tenth and on his next lap he clocked 1:26.195, nearly four tenths up on the Williams. Jani slotted into third and Winkelhock fourth, both over 10 seconds off the pace.

Doornobs took the third spot on his initial flyer and Winkelhock moved ahead of Jani but there wasn't much activity early on. Jarno Trulli's Toyota ventured out for a couple of installation laps and Doornbos improved to second, fractionally ahead of Wurz. Shortly afterwards Wurz posted 1:24.547 to return to the top.

That prompted Davidson back into action and the Honda driver set fastest sectors all round with a 1:23.684, eight and a half tenths up on Wurz. Scott Speed's Toro Rosso made a brief appearance, followed by teammate Tonio Liuzzi and the Super Aguri of Sakon Yamamoto. After half an hour only five drivers had set a time.

MF1's Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers were next out for an installation lap, then the Renault of Fernando Alonso. It appears that Renault has decided not to run its mass damper system this weekend after FIA technical delegates ruled the device illegal on the Toro Rosso cars in Thursday's scrutineering.

Ralf Schumacher's Toyota also went out on track, while Jani moved into fourth ahead of Winkelhock. Yamamoto posted sixth on his first timed effort and Wurz went fastest with a 1:22.941, seven tenths up on Davidson. The Red Bulls of David Coulthard and Christian Klien were next to appear, and the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella.

With 10 minutes to go Sato posted sixth then lost the spot to Trulli, while Winkelhock and Jani swapped places again. Rubens Barrichello's Honda went out for a late run and Ralf slotted into eighth, then Monteiro went one better for seventh. Barrichello took fourth and Davidson demoted Wurz with a 1:22.396, half a second up.

Albers posted eighth and the Honda of Jenson Button and Schumacher's Ferrari appeared in the last few minutes. Speed took 10th, while Michael arrived in third and Button seventh. De la Rosa then took the seventh position and Liuzzi clocked 12th, followed by Raikkonen's first timed effort which put him second.

Raikkonen stormed around for a last minute 1:21.624 and Michael and de la Rosa also improved, third and fourth respectively. Only the third drivers put in any decent track time, most of the racers just doing a handful of laps. Final top eight classification: Raikkonen, Davidson, M. Schumacher, de la Rosa, Wurz, Barrichello, Button, Doornbos.