Hungaroring, FP2: Vettel tops wet second practice in Hungary

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of a wet second practice at the Hungaroring, beating Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by just under three tenths of a second in a session that saw on 13 drivers set a time,

After an overcast opening session in the morning, steady rain began to fall in the run-up to the afternoon session and with no sign of improvement on the immediate horizon the first third of the session was quiet as teams stayed in their garages.

Sergio Pérez was the first man to set a time, just before the half hour mark, and the Mexican slotted into P1 with a lap of 1:43.862s set on extreme wet tyres.

He was joined on the track shortly afterwards by team-mate Lance Stroll who lowered the benchmark to 1:42.380. That remained the top time for a long spell but eventually Vettel eclipsed the time with a lap of 1m41.564s, also on the extreme wets. He then chipped away at the time to lower it 1:40.464s at the one-hour mark. It would remain the target for the rest of the session.

Bottas joined the action just after the hour and he immediately moved into second place. The Finn later tried intermediate tyres but did not improve.

The championship leader’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton took to the track shortly after Bottas emerged, but the Styrian Grand Prix winner put in just a single installation lap on inters and did not set a time.

Third place in the session wen to McLaren’s Carlos Sainz took the placing in the last third of the session. Stroll and Pérez finished fourth and fifth, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who had missed the morning session due to a suspected power unit issue.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen made a late run on wets to take P7 with the Dutchman setting a time of 1:42.820s. Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen were eighth and ninth respectively and the top 10 order was completed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc The remaining drivers to set times were Antonio Giovinazzi, Lando Norris and Daniil Kvyat.