Hungary, FP2: Bottas quickest in second practice

Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the second practice session for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, shading team-mate Lewis Hamilton by two hundredths of a second as championship leader Max Verstappen finished three tenths of a second off the pace after struggling with handling issues.

After an opening period in which Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc held way on medium tyres, Bottas moved to the front on the same compound with a lap of 1:18.376. Hamilton then moved into P2 three tenths of a second. Verstappen then emerged for his first run of the afternoon and he immediately split the Mercedes, with team-mate Sergio Pérez slotting into fourth place.

Hamilton then found a solid gain ands rose to the top of the order with a lap of 1:18.140 that remained the quickest lap before the field began to switch to soft tyres for their qualifying simulations.

Bottas bolted on a set of the red-banded tyres close to the half hour mark and he jumped to a time of 1:17.012 that remained the benchmark for the rest of the session.

Hamilton almost bested his team-mate but though the seven-time champion was quicker in the final sector good work early on from Bottas gave him a slim edge on the timesheet.

Verstappen, meanwhile, was busy trying to dial out persistent understeer but try as he might the championship leader couldn’t find a sweet spot with his RB16B and he had to settle for third place.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon have the Anglo-French squad hope of a good weekend with a lap of 1:17.759 that was good enough for fourth place ahead of Pérez who finished with a best time of 1:17.824.

Pierre Gasly was sixth for AlphaTauri ahead of Fernando Alonso in the second Alpine while Sebastian Vettel put his Aston Martin in eighth place ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll.