Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Hungaroring, 2018

Little between Vettel and Verstappen in second practice

2018 Hungarian Grand Prix second practice

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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.

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.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Sebastian VettelFerrari1’16.83445
233Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’16.9080.07435
33Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’17.0610.22736
47Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’17.1530.31940
544Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’17.5870.75343
677Valtteri BottasMercedes1’17.8681.03446
78Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’18.0651.23139
855Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’18.4951.66138
910Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Honda1’18.5181.68443
1031Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’18.7611.92741
1111Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’18.8502.01642
1214Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Renault1’18.8572.02338
1320Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’18.8802.04635
1427Nico HulkenbergRenault1’18.9132.07923
1528Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Honda1’18.9162.08241
169Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’19.0432.20942
1716Charles LeclercSauber-Ferrari1’19.1372.30338
1818Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’19.6452.81145
192Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Renault1’19.7122.87838
2035Sergey SirotkinWilliams-Mercedes1’19.7702.93645

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

  1. Romain Grosjean took his increasingly customary seventh place for Mercedes

    Wow, the driver market just got spicy :P

    1. 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.

  2. 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. @todfod Mercedes pace doesn’t look good at all, unless they are sandbagging/saving engines they are far from the front row.

    2. 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. That means Kimi not making any errors in Q3, so it’s not a given.

    3. As we learnt with Mercedes, upgraded engines don’t always work as expected.

  3. 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.

  4. 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. Lol. Nothing like the power of positive thinking. Make sure you click your ruby slippers together

  5. 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. 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.

  6. 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. Mercedes need a lot of wet races!

  7. 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?

  8. 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.

  9. 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

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