Daniel Ricciardo led the first practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix by less than a tenth of a second from Sebastian Vettel.
The Red Bull driver set the quickest time of 1’17.613 on soft tyres, fractionally quicker than Vettel’s best effort on the ultra-soft rubber. Vettel lost some time in the final sector of his lap when he had to pass Fernando Alonso.
Max Verstappen put the other Red Bull inside the top three, also within a tenth of a second of the leading trio. As with his team mate, it appeared the ultra-soft tyres required some management over a single flying lap on the hot, 49C track.Fourth-placed Kimi Raikkonen pitted with a suspected brake problem moments before the chequered flag appeared.
An error at the turn six/seven chicane spoiled Lewis Hamilton’s best effort and left him fifth. Valtteri Bottas was even further behind in eighth, though neither of the Mercedes drivers used the ultra-soft tyres.
Romain Grosjean assumed his usual ‘best of the rest’ position despite losing time earlier in the session while the team investigated a problem on his car. Nico Hulkenberg took eighth despite sitting out the final half-hour after his car shut down on the track. Their team mates completed the top 10.
The Toro Rosso pair took 11th and 13th, Brendon Hartley spinning at the final corner as the session came to an ended. They sandwiched Fernando Alonso, who was the only one of the McLaren drivers to set a time on ultra-softs. Stoffel Vandoorne was almost half a second behind having switched to an older chassis for this weekend.
Marcus Ericsson ended the session slowest after two spins. Sauber test driver Antonio Giovinazzi out-paced him by four tenths of a second.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Car | Best lap | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’17.613 | 30 | |
| 2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’17.692 | 0.079 | 24 |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull-TAG Heuer | 1’17.701 | 0.088 | 29 |
| 4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’17.948 | 0.335 | 23 |
| 5 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’18.036 | 0.423 | 28 |
| 6 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1’18.470 | 0.857 | 20 |
| 7 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas-Ferrari | 1’18.975 | 1.362 | 17 |
| 8 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1’19.025 | 1.412 | 14 |
| 9 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | 1’19.128 | 1.515 | 32 |
| 10 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas-Ferrari | 1’19.187 | 1.574 | 29 |
| 11 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’19.352 | 1.739 | 30 |
| 12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Renault | 1’19.690 | 2.077 | 24 |
| 13 | 28 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso-Honda | 1’19.841 | 2.228 | 32 |
| 14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.012 | 2.399 | 33 |
| 15 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India-Mercedes | 1’20.065 | 2.452 | 30 |
| 16 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren-Renault | 1’20.151 | 2.538 | 28 |
| 17 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’20.159 | 2.546 | 27 |
| 18 | 36 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.293 | 2.680 | 31 |
| 19 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.307 | 2.694 | 28 |
| 20 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.697 | 3.084 | 12 |
First practice visual gaps
Daniel Ricciardo – 1’17.613
+0.079 Sebastian Vettel – 1’17.692
+0.088 Max Verstappen – 1’17.701
+0.335 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’17.948
+0.423 Lewis Hamilton – 1’18.036
+0.857 Valtteri Bottas – 1’18.470
+1.362 Romain Grosjean – 1’18.975
+1.412 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’19.025
+1.515 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’19.128
+1.574 Kevin Magnussen – 1’19.187
+1.739 Pierre Gasly – 1’19.352
+2.077 Fernando Alonso – 1’19.690
+2.228 Brendon Hartley – 1’19.841
+2.399 Lance Stroll – 1’20.012
+2.452 Esteban Ocon – 1’20.065
+2.538 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’20.151
+2.546 Sergio Perez – 1’20.159
+2.680 Antonio Giovinazzi – 1’20.293
+2.694 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’20.307
+3.084 Marcus Ericsson – 1’20.697
Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.
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2018 Hungarian Grand Prix
- No win for Raikkonen in his last 30 podium appearances
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix
- 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix Star Performers
- Hamilton extends points lead as Mercedes contain Ferrari
- Vettel doubts slow pit stop ended his victory shot
MacLeod (@macleod)
27th July 2018, 11:45
Always fun as Honda is in front of McLaren with their superior bodywork.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th July 2018, 12:13
Almost as much fun as looking at the engine components used charts for different teams.
nase
27th July 2018, 12:32
Do I need to remind you that this sentence makes no sense, or were you going to realise that by yourself?
Mick Harrold (@mickharrold)
27th July 2018, 12:51
Do you also like watching Williams and Sauber at the bottom of the list? What is it about McLaren failing that you love so much?
Celebrate the winners. Not the losers.
MacLeod (@macleod)
27th July 2018, 13:48
Sorry that this sentence doesn’t make sense never learned English on School just from hearsay. < not native speaker.
I don't like suffering of the back teams as i allways loves the underdog. McLaren is different as the biggest and best team of the F1 and still blaming others instead of them self. (yes Nase always a wrong sentence)
Shimks (@shimks)
27th July 2018, 14:01
Ach, the poor Scottish.
:O)
MacLeod (@macleod)
27th July 2018, 11:48
So the Soft tyre is the one to race or qualifiy on?
DonSmee (@david-beau)
27th July 2018, 12:00
So what is it then, Toro Rosso better chassis or engine or both?
HUHHII (@huhhii)
27th July 2018, 12:04
Better driver?
Warheart (@warheart)
27th July 2018, 12:34
Irrelevant times being FP1. We’ll have a better picture after qualifying.
ColdFly (@)
27th July 2018, 12:10
Strong performance by Ferrari; the team known to sandbag on Fridays.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th July 2018, 12:16
As expected Red Bull and Ferrari at the front. I anticipate an interesting fight for pole among the Ferrari and Rd Bull drivers and an exciting race start between Verstappen and Vettel as usual.
Understeer (@abdelilah)
27th July 2018, 12:19
Worrying pace from the Mercs, with such lap times they will barely qualify into Q2, wait and see.
Todfod (@todfod)
27th July 2018, 12:23
Fairly certain that P5 and P6 is the lowest Mercedes will achieve in qualifying… But I agree that it doesn’t look like they have the pace to challenge for the podium this weekend.
papaya
27th July 2018, 12:29
Haha, let’s see if Haas turn up the holy spec-3 Ferrari PU extra 40hp mode will gets qualify in front of both Mercedes..
Todfod (@todfod)
27th July 2018, 13:37
Yeah.. sure.. maybe you’re assuming that Mercedes doesn’t have a Q3 mode .. not to mention a chassis that is better than one Haas took from Ferrari last year.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
27th July 2018, 12:32
Uh?! No “supreme tyre management” for HAM anymore?!
Todfod (@todfod)
27th July 2018, 13:40
@mg1982
Don’t understand what you meant by that comment. But I doubt there will be any difference in tyre strategies if Merc, Ferrari, Red bull all start in the top 6.
Martin
27th July 2018, 14:20
Over 1 lap? You are actually saying that Hamilton has poor tyre management skills because his one lap pace in free practice 1 is not more than 4 tenths quicker than his team mate? I’m not really sure you actually know anything at all about F1.
Hugh (@hugh11)
27th July 2018, 14:08
The 107% rule beckons them
Nick Wyatt (@nickwyatt)
27th July 2018, 12:38
Is that the ‘new improved’ engine in the back of the Saubers? if it is, then Ericsson is even further adrift.
TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
27th July 2018, 14:39
@nickwyatt – And 0.4s off Giovinazzi who has just two F1 races under his belt… ouch. Anybody know if the Sauber team was running identical cars, just in case one of them had upgraded or test parts?
Adrian Hancox (@ahxshades)
27th July 2018, 14:49
@nickwyatt – Sky are suggesting that they are not in the car yet – but there is confusion (Ted!)
Potsie (@potsie159)
27th July 2018, 12:47
@keithcollantine …that ‘Visual Gap’ illustration of the lap times really highlights the difference between division 1 (top three teams) and division 2 that we presently have in Formula 1 … Its a great way to show the times. thanks.
Have to say that practice session must be a little worrying for Ericsson. I am now really thinking its time for Sauber to seriously consider if the money he brings to the team is worth it compared to his performace(s)
Tenerifeman (@tenerifeman)
27th July 2018, 13:54
I would love to see what distance the time difference equals. I think at 200 kph you cover about 55.5 metres per second, therefore a difference of 0.1 second equals 5.55 metres and a difference of 0.01 second is .55 metre or roughly 18 inches. A thousandth of a second between cars is less than 2 inches. Am I correct?
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
27th July 2018, 14:57
@tenerifeman Haven’t checked the calculations, but for difference over the start/finish line you’ll need to work off the speed average over a lap; averaged for all the cars.
200kph is a good guide, but over a lap the speed is probably lower and that would result in even less of a distance I think. Distance is all relative to speed and time.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
27th July 2018, 22:08
And depends on the circuit ofc, this is one of the few circuits I think where it’s lower than 200 kph, tracks like monza should be well over that, probably like 230, and the old good hockenheim layout was probably even higher.
Tenerifeman (@tenerifeman)
28th July 2018, 0:56
Yes, I realise that it is going to be different for every track and I only used 200 kph as an example. What I was trying to suggest was that we give Keith even more work and add a chart showing distance differences as well as time differences.
Maybe a wake up call to the internet warriors that rubbish a drivers performance if he is two tenths of a second slower on a full out qualifying lap.
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th July 2018, 12:48
got to love the tag on the McLaren’s halo @McLarenShadow, indeed they are a shadow of their former self’s