All the data from the second practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Longest stint comparison
In the laps shown below below both McLarens, Red Bulls, Ferraris and Mercedes were using super-soft tyres
Both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel’s stints look strong and evenly matched, as both drivers improved their times throughout.
But Fernando Alonso’s times rose quite quickly and he switched the soft tyres while his rivals stayed on super-softs.
Though Hamilton managed 13 laps on the tyres – and might have gone further had the session not ended – three such stints in the race will only just get him past half-distance. But with the super-soft tyres looking around eight-tenths of a second quicker over a lap than softs, the drivers in Q3 surely won’t want to do without them
The Hungaroring typically sees high levels of track evolution due to the dusty surface, and both tyre performance and longevity should improve as the weekend progresses.
Felipe Massa said degradation was “significant” on both tyre compounds. “The first signs are that degradation is significant, both on the Prime and the Option, which will be a decisive factor when it comes to strategy.”
An ultimate lap is a driver’s fastest three sector times combined.
Jenson Button is positive about McLaren’s pace: “We?óÔé¼Ôäóre strong in the first and last sectors. I?óÔé¼Ôäóm quickest in the first sector and Lewis is fastest in the last. If we can put it all together, we?óÔé¼Ôäóll be looking pretty good.”
Vitantonio Liuzzi’s best effort was 1.5 seconds slower than 107% of Hamilton’s best time. Even assuming Hamilton does his Q1 time on softs while Liuzzi uses super-softs, he could be at risk from the 107% rule.
Liuzzi said the team made some changes to the car and went back on them but: “the car wasn?óÔé¼Ôäót reacting like in the morning. We had some problems with the rear end which caused over steering.”
Car
Driver
Car
Ultimate lap
Gap
Deficit to best
1
3
Lewis Hamilton
McLaren-Mercedes
1’21.018
0.000
2
5
Fernando Alonso
Ferrari
1’21.259
0.241
0.000
3
4
Jenson Button
McLaren-Mercedes
1’21.322
0.304
0.000
4
2
Mark Webber
Red Bull-Renault
1’21.508
0.490
0.000
5
1
Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull-Renault
1’21.549
0.531
0.000
6
6
Felipe Massa
Ferrari
1’21.889
0.871
0.210
7
8
Nico Rosberg
Mercedes
1’22.121
1.103
0.000
8
7
Michael Schumacher
Mercedes
1’22.440
1.422
0.000
9
15
Paul di Resta
Force India-Mercedes
1’22.762
1.744
0.073
10
14
Adrian Sutil
Force India-Mercedes
1’22.981
1.963
0.000
11
16
Kamui Kobayashi
Sauber-Ferrari
1’23.030
2.012
0.000
12
17
Sergio Perez
Sauber-Ferrari
1’23.186
2.168
0.213
13
11
Rubens Barrichello
Williams-Cosworth
1’23.645
2.627
0.034
14
9
Nick Heidfeld
Renault
1’23.772
2.754
0.089
15
12
Pastor Maldonado
Williams-Cosworth
1’24.181
3.163
0.000
16
19
Jaime Alguersuari
Toro Rosso-Ferrari
1’24.182
3.164
0.000
17
10
Vitaly Petrov
Renault
1’24.516
3.498
0.030
18
18
Sebastien Buemi
Toro Rosso-Ferrari
1’24.734
3.716
0.144
19
21
Jarno Trulli
Lotus-Renault
1’24.944
3.926
0.050
20
20
Heikki Kovalainen
Lotus-Renault
1’25.447
4.429
0.000
21
24
Timo Glock
Virgin-Cosworth
1’26.823
5.805
0.000
22
25
Jerome d’Ambrosio
Virgin-Cosworth
1’27.216
6.198
0.045
23
22
Daniel Ricciardo
HRT-Cosworth
1’27.617
6.599
0.113
24
23
Vitantonio Liuzzi
HRT-Cosworth
1’28.255
7.237
0.000
Complete practice times
Kamui Kobayashi has his eye on the Force Indias: “Although we look better than we did at the Nurburgring, I have the feeling it will be tough to catch the Force India cars, but we want to get in front of them in tomorrow?óÔé¼Ôäós qualifying.”
Surely Mercedes need to add some more angle on that rear wing? Watching them in practice they were terrible in the twisty bits (most of the track basically) and seeing their high straight line speed too… what are they playing at?
Well done Ricciardo today by the way. Will be interesting to see if he out qualifies Liuzzi this race.
Great. After just two races Liuzzi is beaten by a rookie. I hope his problems will be solved in time for qualifying and that he will fight evenly with Ricciardo (and beat him).
I was thinking the same thing in Germany, throughout the race Schumi had the highest topspeed (don’t know if he had it all times, but the dutch commenter mentioned it a few times).
Know, I think Mercedes is said to have the most aggressive DRS, so maybe it’s an artificial way to make sure Schumu’s car has a oversteery feel. (reduce downforce at the back). And possibly Rosberg knows better how to drive with a little understeer, so he can add that extra clicks in downforce, making the car understeer more, but faster for Rosberg.
?
Well, I for one hope for them that they were running maxed out with fuel, their pace was consistently 2s or more off that of the front runners, and about only occasionally competitive with FI, but mostly a second away from the FI, and Sauber is about the same speed as them.
Looks good between HAM, Webber and Vettel, hope Alonso gets some higher temperature to make his car work just as well.
It’s actually hard to read into the McLaren times. Looks like they were doing a lot of alternating slow/fast to learn how to warm the tires for qualifying, and their ultimate recovery ability. Only 8 of Hamilton’s 13 laps were really at speed. Nonetheless Hamilton dropping that time on 13th lap in the stint is impressive. RBR look very solid as usual.
I think it is telling that the McLarens are down on the low end of the speedtrap numbers. Perhaps they are finding the necessary downforce to truly challenge the RB chassis. We know the power of the Merc engines. I will very surprised if at least one mp4-26 isn’t on the front row in the morning.
I was just thinking that. The McLarens are usually way ahead of RBR through the traps, but now the Red Bulls are actually faster. Increased drag from more downforce? Could be… the car is definitely looking more buttoned down through the turns. The Ferrari isn’t looking too shabby either. That would be so fantastic for the championship, If Lewis & Fernando could go blow for blow with Vettel on relatively even footing from here on out. A certain somebody might get taken to school……
The lotus cars appear quite close to Buemi and possibly Maldanado on their stint times, so now Trulli has got his steering the way he wants it, he and Kovalainen it may be quite close in qualy and the race between them and the back end of the midfield.
Lewis has first blood in terms of one-lap and stint performance as well.
McLaren seems to be generally quicker or – if the Red Bulls haven’t gone full out – at least on par with RBR on one-lap pace. Fernando is in the mix too, so it’s more unpredictable, than ever. It’s going to be a close call come Saturday.
What’s more disasterous – from the point of view of a Prancing Horse fan – is race pace, unusually. Lewis has the edge here as well, beating Seb and lasting longer at the same time. Seb, Mark and Jenson are almost inseparable behind. In raw pace Felipe owns even Lewis, but that stint is quite short. Probably it wasn’t even a proper race stint simulation.
And then there’s Fernando. He doesn’t seem to be hooked up as of yet. Slower than the other five and his times dropped off more quickly. Perhaps he used used super-softs, I don’t know.
What I saw from this 2 FP is that RBR is running heavy, anyway Mark looks better cause in comparison Vettels times were produced with an younger option, Ferrari is medium on fuel and Mclaren in particular Button, light on fuel, Hamilton seem to be able to run longer than But, ham did 13 laps, Button had to pit for fuel. Despite what BBC’s pundit said I believe that tyre degradation is quite high and may get higher as the temperatures rise through the weekend, so Prime is the tyre to be.
But Fernando Alonso’s times rose quite quickly and he switched the soft tyres while his rivals stayed on super-softs.
Wow. Ferrari just can’t catch a break, can they? At the start of the year, they had a car that didn’t use hard rubber very well. Now they have a car that doesn’t use soft rubber very well. It’s like they’re just swinging back and forth.
F1 98
29th July 2011, 19:21
I predict alonso wins
Eggry (@eggry)
30th July 2011, 4:08
I hope so :)
Alex Bkk (@alex-bkk)
31st July 2011, 8:22
That was my prediction…got pole right anyway :)
John H (@john-h)
29th July 2011, 19:23
Surely Mercedes need to add some more angle on that rear wing? Watching them in practice they were terrible in the twisty bits (most of the track basically) and seeing their high straight line speed too… what are they playing at?
Well done Ricciardo today by the way. Will be interesting to see if he out qualifies Liuzzi this race.
Fixy (@)
29th July 2011, 20:04
Great. After just two races Liuzzi is beaten by a rookie. I hope his problems will be solved in time for qualifying and that he will fight evenly with Ricciardo (and beat him).
verstappen (@verstappen)
30th July 2011, 8:39
I was thinking the same thing in Germany, throughout the race Schumi had the highest topspeed (don’t know if he had it all times, but the dutch commenter mentioned it a few times).
Know, I think Mercedes is said to have the most aggressive DRS, so maybe it’s an artificial way to make sure Schumu’s car has a oversteery feel. (reduce downforce at the back). And possibly Rosberg knows better how to drive with a little understeer, so he can add that extra clicks in downforce, making the car understeer more, but faster for Rosberg.
?
bosyber
30th July 2011, 9:22
Well, I for one hope for them that they were running maxed out with fuel, their pace was consistently 2s or more off that of the front runners, and about only occasionally competitive with FI, but mostly a second away from the FI, and Sauber is about the same speed as them.
Looks good between HAM, Webber and Vettel, hope Alonso gets some higher temperature to make his car work just as well.
david
29th July 2011, 19:24
great analysis keith! looking good for a mclaren win,i hope we can see a great race with 3 teams fighting for pole and the race
zecks
30th July 2011, 1:19
Although it pains me to say this, but i don’t care if ferrari or mclaren win the race. As long at vettel is pushed back to 5th, i am a happy man
timi
29th July 2011, 19:35
i wish there were sector times. those are my favourite stats :(
Ridzki (@ridzki)
30th July 2011, 6:27
agree
DaveW
29th July 2011, 20:07
It’s actually hard to read into the McLaren times. Looks like they were doing a lot of alternating slow/fast to learn how to warm the tires for qualifying, and their ultimate recovery ability. Only 8 of Hamilton’s 13 laps were really at speed. Nonetheless Hamilton dropping that time on 13th lap in the stint is impressive. RBR look very solid as usual.
Eggry (@eggry)
30th July 2011, 4:11
Yeah, I think Mclaren’s time is qualifying simulation while others look like race sim…
malibu_GP
29th July 2011, 20:26
I think it is telling that the McLarens are down on the low end of the speedtrap numbers. Perhaps they are finding the necessary downforce to truly challenge the RB chassis. We know the power of the Merc engines. I will very surprised if at least one mp4-26 isn’t on the front row in the morning.
Franz
29th July 2011, 20:34
I was just thinking that. The McLarens are usually way ahead of RBR through the traps, but now the Red Bulls are actually faster. Increased drag from more downforce? Could be… the car is definitely looking more buttoned down through the turns. The Ferrari isn’t looking too shabby either. That would be so fantastic for the championship, If Lewis & Fernando could go blow for blow with Vettel on relatively even footing from here on out. A certain somebody might get taken to school……
wigster (@wigster)
29th July 2011, 21:33
The lotus cars appear quite close to Buemi and possibly Maldanado on their stint times, so now Trulli has got his steering the way he wants it, he and Kovalainen it may be quite close in qualy and the race between them and the back end of the midfield.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
29th July 2011, 21:54
Oh dear, this doesn’t look good.
Lewis has first blood in terms of one-lap and stint performance as well.
McLaren seems to be generally quicker or – if the Red Bulls haven’t gone full out – at least on par with RBR on one-lap pace. Fernando is in the mix too, so it’s more unpredictable, than ever. It’s going to be a close call come Saturday.
What’s more disasterous – from the point of view of a Prancing Horse fan – is race pace, unusually. Lewis has the edge here as well, beating Seb and lasting longer at the same time. Seb, Mark and Jenson are almost inseparable behind. In raw pace Felipe owns even Lewis, but that stint is quite short. Probably it wasn’t even a proper race stint simulation.
And then there’s Fernando. He doesn’t seem to be hooked up as of yet. Slower than the other five and his times dropped off more quickly. Perhaps he used used super-softs, I don’t know.
Waiting for FP3 to get a clearer picture.
UKfanatic (@)
30th July 2011, 1:10
you can wish anything that doenst mean it will became truth, RBR are on top, as usually they are being overcautious.
UKfanatic (@)
30th July 2011, 1:07
What I saw from this 2 FP is that RBR is running heavy, anyway Mark looks better cause in comparison Vettels times were produced with an younger option, Ferrari is medium on fuel and Mclaren in particular Button, light on fuel, Hamilton seem to be able to run longer than But, ham did 13 laps, Button had to pit for fuel. Despite what BBC’s pundit said I believe that tyre degradation is quite high and may get higher as the temperatures rise through the weekend, so Prime is the tyre to be.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
30th July 2011, 2:15
Wow. Ferrari just can’t catch a break, can they? At the start of the year, they had a car that didn’t use hard rubber very well. Now they have a car that doesn’t use soft rubber very well. It’s like they’re just swinging back and forth.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
30th July 2011, 10:23
If only Mercedes were that consistent in qualifying and during the race.