Hungaroring, FP1: Ricciardo tops timesheet in opening practice

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo went quickest in a tight opening practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, edging Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by just under eight hundredths of a second, with Max Verstappen third, just 0.009s behind the German.

Though the gap was slim, both Ricciardo and Verstappen set their best times of the session on Pirelli’s soft compound tyres, while Ferrari’s best laps were posted on the ultrasoft tyres.

Ricciardo’s session-topping time came in the final half hour of running and his time of 1:17.613, eclipsed Vettel’s ultrasoft time by 0.079s. Verstappen had earlier set his best time on softs to displace Kimi Räikkönen in the second Ferrari who like his team-mate used ultrasofts for his best time, just over two tenths down on the Dutch driver,

Mercedes were the third fastest team in the session, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton taking fifth sport, over four tenths of a second behind Ricciardo. He was followed by team-mate Valtteri Bottas who ended the session almost nine tenths adrift of Ricciardo as the Mercedes drivers focused on the soft tyres. Hamilton might have improved in the final stages of the session but he overcooked his approach to the chicane and slid wide.

Best of the rest in opening practice was Haas’ Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman set a best time of 1:18.975 to finish 1.362 off the pace and the time was good enough to edge Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg by half a tenth.

Hulkenberg might have pushed past the Haas driver but his session ended early when he pulled up on track at the exit of Turn 5 half an hour before the end of the session.

Carlos Sainz finished ninth in the second Renault a tenth of a second behind Hulkenberg, while Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 in the second Haas 1.574 seconds off Ricciardo’s pace.