Hungaroring, FP2: Vettel ends Hungarian Friday on top

Having been fastest in FP1, Red Bull Racing continued that form into the afternoon with Sebastian Vettel again going quickest, though this time by a much smaller margin over team-mate Mark Webber.

Romain Grosjean was third fastest for Lotus, ahead of the Ferrari’s of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Behind them the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were sixth and seventh, Kimi Räikkönen was eighth quickest in the second Lotus. Jenson Button was ninth for McLaren and Adrian Sutil rounded out the top-ten for Force India.

Vettel’s time of 1:21.264 was set at the half-hour mark. He was already P1 at that point, having been the quickest man in the opening exchanges on the medium tyre. Having changed to the soft compound he improved by 1.2 seconds, setting his fastest time on his first flying lap with the yellow-banded tyre. Webber slotted into P2 a lap later.

The final hour of Friday practice was dominated by long runs, with drivers conducting race simulations. With track temperatures above 40°C tyre performance fell off quickly and no one threatened to match Vettel’s headline time. The circuit remained slippery and, as had been the case in the morning, many drivers struggled with grip, sliding over the kerbs and into the run-off areas.