Hamilton leads rapid but unreliable Red Bulls

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix second practice

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Lewis Hamilton stayed on top in the second practice session at the Hungaroring but this time the Red Bulls were his closest challengers.

Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo ended the session within half a second of Hamilton’s best time, relegating Nico Rosberg to fourth place.

However the session did not go entirely to plan for Red Bull. Ricciardo’s RB11 came to a stop with less than half an hour to go in a plume of smoke which suggested another Renault power unit problem was to blame.

Track temperatures exceeded 50C during the session which made for slippery track conditions. Among the drivers to spin were Romain Grosjean and Sebastian Vettel – the latter losing his Ferrari twice.

Kimi Raikkonen was back on track following his front wing failure in first practice and put his Ferrari in the top five. The two red cars were separated by Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Toro Rosso, with Fernando Alonso a strong eighth for McLaren.

Neither Force India ran during the session as the team continues to investigate the problem which caused Sergio Perez’s crash and roll in first practice.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’23.94936
226Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault1’24.3000.35129
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault1’24.4510.50216
46Nico RosbergMercedes1’24.6680.71934
57Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’25.1341.18530
655Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault1’25.5991.65037
75Sebastian VettelFerrari1’25.6601.71126
814Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’25.7521.80331
977Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes1’25.8811.93235
1019Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’25.9201.97131
1133Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault1’25.9351.98619
1222Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda1’25.9942.04532
1313Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes1’26.0902.14136
1412Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari1’26.3792.43036
158Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes1’26.4422.49339
169Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’26.8312.88229
1798Roberto MerhiManor-Ferrari1’29.1135.16429
1828Will StevensManor-Ferrari1’29.1155.16628

Second practice visual gaps

Lewis Hamilton – 1’23.949

+0.351 Daniil Kvyat – 1’24.300

+0.502 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’24.451

+0.719 Nico Rosberg – 1’24.668

+1.185 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’25.134

+1.650 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’25.599

+1.711 Sebastian Vettel – 1’25.660

+1.803 Fernando Alonso – 1’25.752

+1.932 Valtteri Bottas – 1’25.881

+1.971 Felipe Massa – 1’25.920

+1.986 Max Verstappen – 1’25.935

+2.045 Jenson Button – 1’25.994

+2.141 Pastor Maldonado – 1’26.090

+2.430 Felipe Nasr – 1’26.379

+2.493 Romain Grosjean – 1’26.442

+2.882 Marcus Ericsson – 1’26.831

+5.164 Roberto Merhi – 1’29.113

+5.166 Will Stevens – 1’29.115

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Keith Collantine
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21 comments on “Hamilton leads rapid but unreliable Red Bulls”

  1. Is Rosberg sandbagging or is he really that slow?

  2. Fortunately it’s not Ricciardo’s race engine so no grid penalty arising from it’s failure.

  3. Tought weekend for Force India ! Not only they missed one session after a serious problem, but their direct competitor is enjoying its best weekend since 2013! It was expected given this will probably be Red Bull’s strongest weekend of the year, but still…

  4. I was thinking, if Hamilton wins on sunday is this the first track where he is the sole record holder of most wins?

    1. Nope, there’s China and Russia.

      1. @david-a Thanks, although let’s not count Sochi yet, but COTA sure is one I forgot. I though about China but didn’t check it.

    2. No, Schumacher and Magny Cours (8 wins there)

      1. HamiltonNumber1
        24th July 2015, 18:15

        Think he means Hamilton’s most wins it will either be 4 or 5 if he wins Hunggary his most i think.

      2. @mfreire That’s not what was being asked.

    3. Yes, that’s correct. He’ll have 5 to schumacher’s 4, which for an historic race is quite an achievement.

      Speaking purely from a GP4 perspective, but the hungaroring is really a track where a driver can make a difference on the kerbs and with braking.

      1. Ok, lets say on tracks with 20 years or more history on the calendar. CoTA and Sochi don’t really count yet :)

  5. I know its more complicated than this but the hot temps aren’t necessarily propelling Ferrari to the top of the timesheets

    1. well it’s a bit more complicated than that.

  6. Merhi is looking strong this weekend. He’s a bit faster than Stevens even tough he didn’t run the first practice.

    On the other news, does anyone know if that Williams new front wing is really being used this weekend and who’s running it?

  7. I can’t help but feel Lotus are going very quickly backwards. They could barely get their tyres for this race. If Renault does not step in, I think Lotus will struggle to make it to the final race of the season.

  8. Good to see the Red Bulls doing so well. I’m hoping they outqualify the Ferraris on Saturday… would be good to see Ricciardo and Vettel battle each other.

    Also Lotus and Sauber looking really slow this weekend. Mclaren actually looked quicker than both of them today. Points finish should be on for Mclaren considering Lotus and Sauber haven’t found their rhythm yet and Force India missed FP2.

  9. Go RBR. Hope they keep the pace and challenge Ferrari this weekend.

  10. What’s up with Vettel? He has been slower than Kimi in both sessions!

  11. Looks like McLaren is ahead of Sauber and lotus (i’m guessing ForceIndia also) and on par with wiliams and tottorosso. Hope it is real; never been a McLaren fan but it is was excruciating to watch them this year.

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