For the first time since 2013 someone other than Lewis Hamilton headed a practice session at the Hungaroring after the Mercedes driver crashed on his fifth lap.
Hamilton was on course to set the quickest lap time in the early stages of the session when his W07 snapped sideways entering turn 11. He skidded across the run-off and make contact with the barrier.
But although red flags were immediately shown to stop the session, Hamilton was able to drive his car back to the pits. Nonetheless he took no further part in the session as Mercedes investigated the extent of the damage.
That left Nico Rosberg to lead the way for Mercedes. While Hamilton was unable to set a time on the super-soft tyres, Rosberg lowered the best time of the weekend so far to a 1’20.435.
Red Bull revealed their one-lap pace on the same rubber but Daniel Ricciardo was not able to get within half a second of Rosberg’s time. The only other drivers to lap the Hungaroring within a second of Rosberg’s time was Sebastian Vettel.
Despite only doing a single flying lap Hamilton ended the session fifth-quickest behind Max Verstappen, who made a mistake on his quickest run.
As in the first session the McLarens were the fourth-quickest team. Fernando Alonso, running with a new power unit after Honda spotted a potential problem developing during first practice, was seventh behind Kimi Raikkonen, and less than a tenth faster than team mate Jenson Button. The Force India pair completed the top ten.
The final stages of the session saw reliability problems force Felipe Nasr’s Sauber and Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Toro Rosso to stop.
Second practice visual gaps
Nico Rosberg – 1’20.435
+0.595 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’21.030
+0.913 Sebastian Vettel – 1’21.348
+1.335 Max Verstappen – 1’21.770
+1.525 Lewis Hamilton – 1’21.960
+1.623 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’22.058
+1.893 Fernando Alonso – 1’22.328
+2.014 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’22.449
+2.218 Sergio Perez – 1’22.653
+2.238 Esteban Gutierrez – 1’22.673
+2.246 Felipe Massa – 1’22.681
+2.254 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’22.689
+2.338 Valtteri Bottas – 1’22.773
+2.429 Romain Grosjean – 1’22.864
+2.513 Daniil Kvyat – 1’22.948
+2.912 Kevin Magnussen – 1’23.347
+3.002 Marcus Ericsson – 1’23.437
+3.093 Jolyon Palmer – 1’23.528
+3.551 Felipe Nasr – 1’23.986
+3.557 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’23.992
+3.830 Rio Haryanto – 1’24.265
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
2016 Hungarian Grand Prix
- 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Raikkonen’s rise to sixth earns Driver of the Weekend win
- Rosberg ‘surprised Hamilton is suddenly a fan of safety’
- Drivers to demand yellow flag clarification
- Few excited by Hungarian GP “chess match”
2016 F1 practice sessions
- Errors leave Hamilton behind Rosberg in final practice
- Rosberg edges Hamilton in second practice
- Mercedes comfortably ahead in first practice
- Two stoppages can’t keep Hamilton from top spot
- Mercedes wrap up Friday practice with almost a second in hand
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
22nd July 2016, 14:29
Love this season, never seems to stop messing with the narratives
Understeer (@abdelilah)
22nd July 2016, 14:33
Crashing out on FP2 is not the best way to start the WE.
DaveW (@dmw)
22nd July 2016, 15:15
True. But when you finish fifth, after having done only 4 laps, on a track that cleans up massively over a session, that’s pretty remarkable. He’s still got to be the favorite.
David Browne (@dvb78)
22nd July 2016, 16:22
that’s not remarkable – it just shows how far Merc are ahead of the rest
LuvinF1 (@luvinf1)
22nd July 2016, 21:45
… and there’s another Merc out there.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
22nd July 2016, 14:38
Another unforced error by Hamilton, hopefully it won affect his performance for tomorrow. Nico suffered the same at Silverstone and he was no where to be found afterwards, tho it could’ve been the conditions on track rather than the lack of run during friday.
We should keep the statistics over a season like in tennis! I reckon Lewis’ got a lot more unforced errors than in the previous 2 years.
Mick Harrold (@mickharrold)
22nd July 2016, 14:59
I agree, He seems to have a lot more unforced errors this year. However, he still seems faster than Nico. If Hamilton removes the unforced errors, he will win by miles.
McLaren look ok this weekend. (In comparison with how bad they have looked in the past year.) Haas seems to be good too which suggest they have a decent car when they can make it work. Ricciardo seems miles in front of Verstappen in both sessions too. I was hoping that both Red Bulls might be up there challenging the Mercs this weekend, but it seems RB and particularly Verstappen is a step to far off the pace for now.
Ferrari not so good this weekend. I think the engine is ok, but that Ferrari chassis is no good right now it seems. Look at McLaren by comparison. They are up the order this weekend and Ferrari are just hanging in there on a track that rewards a good chassis.
Matthew Coyne
22nd July 2016, 15:10
Agree, and it’s sessions like this which should shut up all the people who seem to think Merc are only where they are because of the engine – This circuit shows more than any other that their chassis is also class leading, in my opinion it’s the best in the field – evidence throughout the past couple of years has shown it is generally quicker than Red Bull in aero dominant sectors.
pastaman (@)
22nd July 2016, 15:47
I’m surprised to see Toro Rosso so far down the order again. Have this year’s engines progressed that much from the 2015 Ferrari already? Even so, you’d expect them to do better on a track like Hungary
ColdFly F1 (@)
22nd July 2016, 16:17
I don’t think it is that dramatic, @pastaman.
Chili at 1:22.6 is as fast as Checo in 11th and only 0.3 behind Alo in 7th.
We never expected a STR to be in the top 6 anyway.
jean
22nd July 2016, 16:21
The HUGE run-off didn’t seem to have much effect here
Duc Pham (@ducpham2708)
22nd July 2016, 16:39
Looks like another Mercedes easy 1-2, the real fight will be between the Red Bulls for the last place on the podium.
The Ferrari fans must be frustrated, somehow they have managed to fall behind to third while using the most development tokens. Hopefully they will get better from tomorrow as the temperatures will be higher, and as we all know Ferrari has troubles warming up the Supersoft and Ultrasoft tyres, and give us at least something to watch for (Red Bull vs. Ferrari) in the qualy.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
22nd July 2016, 18:22
I think Ferrari’s decision to use up most or all their tokens this year is correct because there isn’t any requirement for them next year. The only valid reason I can think of for not using them up is because you don’t have any new “better” engine on the drawing board.