Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Hungaroring, 2018

Vettel breaks track record as Mercedes drivers spin

2018 Hungarian Grand Prix third practice

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Sebastian Vettel set a new track record for the Hungaroring as he stayed on top of the practice times in the final session.

The Ferrari driver was only five-hundredths of a second quicker than Valtteri Bottas. But both Mercedes drivers appeared to be struggling with their cars and suffered spins at the turn six/seven chicane. Bottas made contact with the barrier at low speed when he went off.

The Red Bull drivers slipped back from the level they had been at on Friday. Daniel Ricciardo’s final lap left him fifth, six-tenths of a second down on Vettel. Max Verstappen was sixth after being delayed by Charles Leclerc on run one – he appeared to hold up the Sauber driver in retaliation at turn one afterwards.

The Renault pair took seventh and eighth as Romain Grosjean, who had been ‘best of the rest’ in both sessions on Friday, complained he wasn’t able to get the best out of his power unit. He ended up ninth ahead of Pierre Gasly, another driver who complained about being delayed by traffic.

Leclerc was the quickest of the Saubers in 13th, followed by Fernando Alonso. Stoffel Vandoorne missed a chunk of the session in his McLaren as the team completed a scheduled floor change.

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Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’16.17016
277Valtteri BottasMercedes1’16.2290.05917
37Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’16.3730.20316
444Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’16.7490.57917
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’16.8030.63311
633Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’16.9460.77614
755Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’17.7541.58417
827Nico HulkenbergRenault1’18.0831.91318
98Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’18.0841.91419
1010Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’18.1391.96922
1120Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’18.2302.06017
1228Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’18.2522.08219
1316Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’18.3762.20619
1414Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’18.4672.29715
1531Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’18.5122.34220
1635Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’18.6302.46017
172Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’18.7892.61914
189Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’18.8422.67218
1911Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’18.9622.79218
2018Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’19.1322.96220

Third practice visual gaps

Sebastian Vettel – 1’16.170

+0.059 Valtteri Bottas – 1’16.229

+0.203 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’16.373

+0.579 Lewis Hamilton – 1’16.749

+0.633 Daniel Ricciardo – 1’16.803

+0.776 Max Verstappen – 1’16.946

+1.584 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’17.754

+1.913 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’18.083

+1.914 Romain Grosjean – 1’18.084

+1.969 Pierre Gasly – 1’18.139

+2.060 Kevin Magnussen – 1’18.230

+2.082 Brendon Hartley – 1’18.252

+2.206 Charles Leclerc – 1’18.376

+2.297 Fernando Alonso – 1’18.467

+2.342 Esteban Ocon – 1’18.512

+2.460 Sergey Sirotkin – 1’18.630

+2.619 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’18.789

+2.672 Marcus Ericsson – 1’18.842

+2.792 Sergio Perez – 1’18.962

+2.962 Lance Stroll – 1’19.132

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelFerrari1’17.6921’16.8341’16.170-0.66485
2Valtteri BottasMercedes1’18.4701’17.8681’16.229-1.63983
3Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’17.9481’17.1531’16.373-0.7879
4Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’18.0361’17.5871’16.749-0.83888
5Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’17.6131’17.0611’16.803-0.25877
6Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’17.7011’16.9081’16.946+0.03878
7Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’19.1281’18.4951’17.754-0.74187
8Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’18.9751’18.0651’18.084+0.01975
9Nico HulkenbergRenault1’19.0251’18.9131’18.083-0.8355
10Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’19.3521’18.5181’18.139-0.37995
11Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’19.1871’18.8801’18.230-0.6581
12Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’19.8411’18.9161’18.252-0.66492
13Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’19.1371’18.376-0.76157
14Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’19.6901’18.8571’18.467-0.3977
15Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’20.0651’18.7611’18.512-0.24991
16Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’20.3071’19.7701’18.630-1.1490
17Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’20.1511’19.7121’18.789-0.92380
18Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’20.6971’19.0431’18.842-0.20172
19Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’20.1591’18.8501’18.962+0.11287
20Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’20.0121’19.6451’19.132-0.51398
21Antonio GiovinazziSauber-Ferrari1’20.29331

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2018 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Vettel breaks track record as Mercedes drivers spin”

  1. Lovely! Incredible! VET teaching HAM how to drive in dry conditions. HAM couldn’t cope with the pressure VET put on him and messed up. Mercedes obviously have the car to fight for the PP.

    1. Wouldn’t his teammate be the one to put pressure on him? Him searching for that speed Bottas found surely is what has him overdriving the car.
      P.s. Grazie, ragazzi.

      1. You’re 110% correct, sir!

        1. You’re both wrong. Clearly, the FIA have made special tires for Ferrari, since their Italian pride has swollen up amidst accusations of trying to make a new Axis with Mercedes.

    2. @mg1982
      Ferrari has a far better car this race weekend as they did last weekend. It’s up to Vettel to drop the ball again or capitalise.

      VET teaching HAM how to drive in dry conditions.

      Vettel would probably give great tips on how to throw away an easy race win by putting it in the barriers. I believe that’s a skill set Lewis hasn’t acquired yet.

      1. Vettel would probably give great tips on how to throw away an easy race win by putting it in the barriers. I believe that’s a skill set Lewis hasn’t acquired yet.

        I’d like to believe that @mg1982 was being sarcastic. But a had a nice chuckle at your comment, nonetheless.

        1. He wasn’t.

        2. I’d like to believe that @mg1982 was being sarcastic

          You got it.

      2. No need to get nasty like that. Hamilton lost the 2007 championship by dropping the car on the gravel on pit entry in China. And there are other cases. All drivers make mistakes, if they didn’t they wouldn’t be driving aggressively enough to be in the sport.

        1. True, but remember that he spun due to being told to stay out with worn out tires.

      3. “Vettel would probably give great tips on how to throw away an easy race win by putting it in the barriers. I believe that’s a skill set Lewis hasn’t acquired yet.”
        Throughly disagree. Lewis Hamilton acquired that skill level at highest on Chinese GP 2007 by losing his championship.

    3. @mg1982 oppppssss hahahahaha

    4. @mg1982

      VET teaching HAM how to drive in dry conditions

      And now HAM has given VET another lesson in how to drive in the wet ;)

  2. I’m a HAM fan but I’d love to see Vettel win this GP so keep the title challenge fully active!

    …..It’d also help my fantasy F1 team which took a plunge last week when I dropped HAM for VET!

    1. Champ is over. Ferrari 0.3 s faster on one middle straight. Spa and Monza will destroy Merc, and after that will be worst Merc track. Easy win for Vettel.

      1. I hope you aren’t right, but yeah I don’t think we need a HAM losing points if we want the championship going far into the season @thunder1115, @geekzilla9000; the ferrari does look like the strongest car for the foreseeable future (ie. here, Spa, Monza, and even Japan).

        1. They will be quick everywhere with their two batteries on pu and 38 hp extra power.

      2. Yeah, right… Let’s not exaggerate already. Ferrari has indeed the upper hand now, but only marginal, just like Mercedes had it last year… although many still kept saying the cars were equal right from the start of the season. Then, Mercedes seems to perform better in race trim. We shall see how reliable they are tho, and that comparison can only be made after the champ is over. Also, those 38-40HP more were mentioned as “up to”, so most likely they’ll make full use of that extra HP of the new-spec engine only in Q3, in every other session they’ll have like only 20HP more for sure.

        1. Vettel had new engine in Canada. That extra power not from new engine. Rai had new engine in Barcelona. They have tricks with two batteries, if i have source on English i give the link? but i do not have. Vet had much better long run in Friday, he start 1.21.1 Merc on ultras never break 1.22 but thanks rain quali.

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