Ferrari yet to show their hand in Hungary (First practice interactive data)

Posted on

| Written by

Although Red Bull showed impressive pace in the first practice session at the Hungaroring it’s clear we haven’t seen representative times from all their rivals.

Chief among which are Ferrari and McLaren who were running different programmes this morning in Hungary.

You need to upgrade your Flash Player

View interactive chart full screen

Tick/untick drivers’ names to show their laps, click and drag to zoom

As the Hungaroring does not get used much between F1 races the track is typically very dusty first thing on a Friday. As it cleans up and rubber goes down it improves very quickly – teams refer to this as the track’s ‘evolution’.

As teams tend to use just one set of tyres in first practice the improvement in the track is usually cancelled out by tyre degradation towards the end of the session. But with the track improving so much, and most teams doing very little running in the first half hour, we saw times improving across the board even in the final minutes.

But the Hungaroring is also a track where each lap of fuel carries a significant time penalty – around 0.08s per lap, one of the highest of the year. And it seems very likely from looking at these times that several of Red Bull’s key rivals were running with more fuel on board.

Red Bull’s advantage was greatest in the second sector of the lap – no surprise there, as it contains turns four, ten and eleven, the quickest corners on the track and a happy hunting ground for the RB6. Sebastian Vettel was 0.567s faster through this than everyone apart from his team mate.

Slow-motion replays during the session showed the car’s flexing front wing working to great effect

But this is also a good track for Red Bull as it plays down straight-line speed disadvantage. Mark Webber was the slowest driver through the speed trap (281.9kph versus Paul di Resta’s best of 293.3kph) yet was only a whisker off Vettel at the top of the times.

The middle sector is also the point on the lap where a lighter fuel load has the greatest effect on lap times. Ferrari were eight tenths off Red Bull in this sector, but not as far behind elsewhere, a further indication that they were doing more high-fuel running in the first session.

They may have had an eye on the weather and wanted to concentrate on their race set-up. Sunday is expected to be dry but a band of rain is heading towards the track and could reach it ahead of this afternoon’s session, though at the time of writing it looks unlikely.

Lewis Hamilton set his best time on his first flying lap – suggesting there is a lot more time to come from his McLaren that his 18th place on the times sheet indicates.

Force India conducted back-to-back tests of their exhaust-blown diffuser which was run on Adrian Sutil’s car while Paul di Resta ran without the upgrade for comparison.

Sutil set his best time, a 1’23.003, half an hour before di Resta’s best, suggesting he had more time in hand. The team pronounced themselves happy with the amount of data they’d gathered from running the new part.

Drivers’ best lap times

CarDriverCarBest lapGapLapAt timeLaps
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’20.976196829
26Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’21.1060.130155927
311Robert KubicaRenault1’22.0721.096187821
41Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.4441.46876517
59Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’22.6011.62595025
622Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’22.7641.788167924
78Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’22.7721.796239025
84Nico RosbergMercedes1’22.7771.801228925
93Michael SchumacherMercedes1’22.7921.816114626
1010Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’22.9661.990207525
1114Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’23.0032.02776119
127Felipe MassaFerrari1’23.0072.031166726
1312Vitaly PetrovRenault1’23.2492.273198424
1423Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’23.3272.351104823
1515Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’23.5202.544189219
1616Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’23.7802.804104922
1717Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’23.8682.892104028
182Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’24.0753.09934915
1918Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’25.0324.056105922
2019Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’25.2104.234105923
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’25.9905.014199021
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’26.6865.710137317
2321Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’26.9906.014206234
2420Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth1’28.1577.181188424

Drivers’ ultimate lap times

A drivers’ ultimate lap is their three best sector times added together.

CarDriverCarUltimate lapGapDeficit to best
15Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’20.7060.270
26Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’20.9070.2010.199
311Robert KubicaRenault1’21.9221.2160.150
41Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.2761.5700.168
53Michael SchumacherMercedes1’22.4941.7880.298
64Nico RosbergMercedes1’22.5451.8390.232
78Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’22.5741.8680.198
89Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’22.6011.8950.000
922Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’22.6281.9220.136
107Felipe MassaFerrari1’22.7442.0380.263
1110Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’22.7912.0850.175
1223Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’22.8982.1920.429
1312Vitaly PetrovRenault1’22.9862.2800.263
1414Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’23.0032.2970.000
152Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’23.2382.5320.837
1615Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’23.3812.6750.139
1717Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’23.5862.8800.282
1816Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’23.7613.0550.019
1918Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’24.9514.2450.081
2019Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’24.9684.2620.242
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’25.5114.8050.479
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’26.5985.8920.088
2321Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’26.9066.2000.084
2420Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth1’27.8537.1470.304

2010 Hungarian Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix articles

    Image (C) www.mclaren.com

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    7 comments on “Ferrari yet to show their hand in Hungary (First practice interactive data)”

    1. What actually happened with the di resta tyre problems??

      1. Force India put tyres on that weren’t meant to be put on until Saturday I believe.

        1. Seems they have got in a bad rithm with their tyres since Hockenheim!

    2. still to early to tell

    3. The Red Bulls are a second a lap faster than any other car on the circuit. I agree that its way too early to judge, but all the teams cant be sandbagging, can they?

    4. “Slow-motion replays during the session showed the car’s flexing front wing working to great effect”

      Well I guess Red Bull really gives your wings. :)

      1. Sorry typo “you wings”

    Comments are closed.