Hungaroring, FP1: Vettel leads Red Bull practice one-two

A hot morning in Hungary saw Sebastian Vettel finish FP1 at the top of the timesheets. The Red Bull Racing driver completed a lap of 1:22.723 in the last half-hour of the session. It left him two-tenths clear of team-mate Mark Webber, who moments earlier had posted a time of 1:22.982.

Behind the Red Bull pair, Lotus’ Kimi Räikkönen was third quickest, narrowly ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and team-mate Romain Grosjean. Jenson Button was sixth for McLaren, Adrian Sutil seventh for Force India and Nico Rosberg eighth for Mercedes. Sergio Pérez was ninth in the second McLaren, the last man within a second of the leader, and Pastor Maldonado’s Williams rounded out the top ten.

The session got off to a slow start. With last week’s Silverstone test having been dominated by run programmes designed by Pirelli, this morning was the first opportunity for race drivers to use the new tyres with a set-up of their choosing. But the desire to get out on track was tempered by the prospect of a very green surface. On their installation laps a number of drivers reported it to be very dusty, a fact reinforced during the session by the number of cars that ran wide, with floors and rear bodywork sections being damaged in the process.

With that in mind it was perhaps to be expected that nobody wanted to be responsible for sweeping the track. The duty fell to Rodolfo González, however. The Venezuelan was the only substitute driver on show, standing in for Max Chilton at Marussia and his was the only car to set a time in the first half-hour, with a best lap of 1:37.942.

Shortly after the half-hour mark more cars emerged and the times fell dramatically. Rosberg was the first man under 1m30, after which the leaderboard went into freefall, with Pérez, Räikkönen, Alonso, Grosjean, Button and Webber all taking turns at the top before Vettel went quickest of all with 19 minutes left on the clock.

The session passed off largely without incident, though Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne had a late spin and Kimi Räikkönen toured back to the pits in the final minutes with a slow puncture.