Vettel keeps Red Bull on top in Hungary

Practice in Hungary resumed this afternoon with Yamamoto leading the rest of the field out of the pitlane as the light went green.

The Japanese driver immediately got the ball running and set a first time on the board. He was quickly beaten by fellow Japanese Kamui Kobayashi. Both of them were rapidly overhauled as other drivers completed flying laps.

Vitaly Petrov took things in charge and was leading with a 1’22’’490 when he pitted at the end of a five-lap run. Both McLarens of Button and Hamilton were up in P2 and P3 but it was still early in the session and both Red Bulls, who set the pace this morning, were yet to complete a timed lap.

Traffic caused some problems in the first part of the session but it didn’t prevent Fernando Alonso to put his Ferrari on top of the timesheets with a 1’21’’862. The Spaniard improved his time to a 1’21’’504 as the Red Bulls were stretching their legs.

They were back at the front after their second timed laps, with Webber leading his teammate Vettel by 0.278s. Alonso was third, 0.458 down on Webber. Vettel moved up one place some minutes later, with a 1’20’’733. As the first third of the session elapsed, the German driver was leading from Webber, Massa and Alonso.

The four of them were covered by 0.771s while the rest of the field was a second down on the Red Bulls’ pace.

They spent some time in the pits after this first run but the battle at the front soon resumed. Webber beat Vettel by 0.132s to retake the lead. Third-placed Alonso improved his time to close the gap to the pacesetter down to four tenths of a second.

With less than thirty minutes to go, Vettel upped the pace and took over at the front with a 1’20’’087. He then found himself with a 0.510s advantage over his teammate. In the meantime, Alonso closed to just one tenth of a second of the Australian. Massa was fourth fastest and the last driver within one second of Vettel.

Alonso subsequently moved up to P2, 0.013s ahead of Webber and 0.497s down on the leading Red Bull.

Very few improvements were to be reported in the final part of the session. Sebastian Vettel concluded this day of practice with the fastest time. Red Bull’s good run was slightly spoiled by Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard set the 2nd fastest time to split the RB6 of Vettel and Webber. Massa was fourth fastest.

Vitaly Petrov enjoyed a good afternoon practice session and outpaced his teammate as he set the fifth fastest time. Hamilton was sixth fastest, 1.221s down on Vettel. Kubica, Hulkenberg, Button and Schumacher completed the top ten.

Adrian Sutil and Heikki Kovalainen lost some running time due to problems on their cars. The Force India driver completed only 22 laps, while the Finn had an even worse session with just five laps under his belt.