Little between Vettel and Verstappen in second practice

Sebastian Vettel put Ferrari on top in second practice at the Hungaroring but the margins between them and Red Bull remained small.

Following a steady initial run on the soft tyres, the Ferrari driver switched to ultra-softs to bang in a 1’16.834 which stood as the best time of the day. Verstappen was quicker than Vettel in the second two sectors of the lap but couldn’t make up the three-tenths he lost in sector one. The gap at the line was less than a tenth of a second.

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Daniel Ricciardo lost even more time in the first sector, where he was almost half a second off Vettel. He ended up third-quickest.

Only the Mercedes drivers got close to Vettel’s pace in the first sector. But both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas backed off before the end of their flying laps, exaggerating the gap between them and the rest.

Romain Grosjean took his increasingly customary seventh place for Mercedes, but team mate Kevin Magnussen experienced a problem with his new-specification power unit. The team were able to address the problem via a settings change during his run.

Three other cars rounded off the top 10. The first of those, Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Renault, was over four tenths of a second slower than the Haas. Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso and Esteban Ocon’s Force India were next.

Stoffel Vandoorne’s struggles in the McLaren went on. Despite a change of chassis, a 360-degree spin entering turn five left him 19th in the session, eight-tenths of a second off his team mate.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’16.834		45
2	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’16.908	0.074	35
3	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’17.061	0.227	36
4	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’17.153	0.319	40
5	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’17.587	0.753	43
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’17.868	1.034	46
7	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’18.065	1.231	39
8	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Renault	1’18.495	1.661	38
9	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’18.518	1.684	43
10	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1’18.761	1.927	41
11	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’18.850	2.016	42
12	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Renault	1’18.857	2.023	38
13	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’18.880	2.046	35
14	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1’18.913	2.079	23
15	28	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso-Honda	1’18.916	2.082	41
16	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1’19.043	2.209	42
17	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber-Ferrari	1’19.137	2.303	38
18	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1’19.645	2.811	45
19	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Renault	1’19.712	2.878	38
20	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams-Mercedes	1’19.770	2.936	45

Second practice visual gaps

Sebastian Vettel – 1’16.834

+0.074 Max Verstappen – 1’16.908

+0.227 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’17.061

+0.319 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’17.153

+0.753 Lewis Hamilton – 1’17.587

+1.034 Valtteri Bottas – 1’17.868

+1.231 Romain Grosjean – 1’18.065

+1.661 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’18.495

+1.684 Pierre Gasly – 1’18.518

+1.927 Esteban Ocon – 1’18.761

+2.016 Sergio Perez – 1’18.850

+2.023 Fernando Alonso – 1’18.857

+2.046 Kevin Magnussen – 1’18.880

+2.079 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’18.913

+2.082 Brendon Hartley – 1’18.916

+2.209 Marcus Ericsson – 1’19.043

+2.303 Charles Leclerc – 1’19.137

+2.811 Lance Stroll – 1’19.645

+2.878 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’19.712

+2.936 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’19.770

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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2018 Hungarian Grand Prix

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18 comments on “Little between Vettel and Verstappen in second practice”

Pratyush P (@pratyushp276)
27th July 2018, 15:39

Romain Grosjean took his increasingly customary seventh place for Mercedes

Wow, the driver market just got spicy :P
1. Lems
  27th July 2018, 15:52
  
  Really interesting 😂😂😂
2. BlackJackFan
  27th July 2018, 16:04
  
  And the FP1 report had both Bottas and Hulk in 8th place, which confused me for a bit. If it had been Dieter writing this I would have put it down to a lack of lunch… lol.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th July 2018, 15:45

Ferrari should be on target for a front row lockout once they turn their engine up in Q3. Red Bull’s only chance to beat Ferrari will be a great race start or splitting their strategies between their two drivers.

I hate to say it, but Ferrari will be untouchable once they get their latest engine upgrade for either Spa or Monza.
1. Understeer (@abdelilah)
  27th July 2018, 16:28
  
  @todfod Mercedes pace doesn’t look good at all, unless they are sandbagging/saving engines they are far from the front row.
2. ColdFly (@)
  27th July 2018, 18:08
  
  Ferrari should be on target for a front row lockout once they turn their engine up in Q3.
  
  Unfortunately it seems that not both drivers can handle that extra power.
  1. David (@davidjwest)
    27th July 2018, 20:21
    
    That means Kimi not making any errors in Q3, so it’s not a given.
3. Hugh (@hugh11)
  27th July 2018, 21:13
  
  As we learnt with Mercedes, upgraded engines don’t always work as expected.
DaveW (@dmw)
27th July 2018, 15:48

MB sand-bagging? It will be interesting to see the long runs analysis, given that MB did not want to show their hands on the ultras.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
27th July 2018, 16:31

I hate to say it, but Ferrari will be untouchable once they get their latest engine upgrade for either Spa or Monza.

Neah, HAM will cancel all their gains and come on top via “superior tyre management”, skills etc. If not, Mercedes is at fault…. or Rosberg!
1. SaraJ (@sjzelli)
  27th July 2018, 17:24
  
  Lol. Nothing like the power of positive thinking. Make sure you click your ruby slippers together
Lems
27th July 2018, 18:42

I expect ferrari to nail this. Red Bull might give them a run for their money but ferrari will have an extra edge owing to their Q3 quali mode. For Mercedes, it’ll be damage limitation.
1. David (@davidjwest)
  27th July 2018, 20:23
  
  VET on pole for sure, unless it rains!
  
  Red Bull will give VET a hard time in the race but won’t be able to overtake so they will rely on strategy. If both their cars are in contention they could nick it from VET.
AMG44 (@amg44)
27th July 2018, 20:13

Many ‘Damage limitation’ tracks for Mercedes. And Ferrari is fastest or joint-fastest Everywhere now. I expect Vettel to be half a second ahead of the Mercedes here.
1. David (@davidjwest)
  27th July 2018, 20:24
  
  Mercedes need a lot of wet races!
David (@davidjwest)
27th July 2018, 20:40

Anyone see any long run times?

From what I’ve heard the Ferrari looks best but Red Bull were quick but look to be on lighter fuel loads.

Mercedes not really competitive here?
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
27th July 2018, 23:42

There is a high chance of Vet or Vetstap’n of crashing. Pole is very important here.

I reckon Daniel Ric will win. There will be a crash. But if there is no crash then Vettel will win.
Christopher (@twiinzspeed)
27th July 2018, 23:54

Hoping the Scuderia will put there head down and dominate in a front row lockout and a 1-2 finish. It would be a great tribute in honor of their fallen leader. Just like they did when Enzo passed. Now that was an incredible race…..
RIP Sergio M. #Forza Ferrari