Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull in a familiar position on top of the times sheets in the final practice session at the Hungaroring.
Vettel’s team broke the curfew last night (which teams may do up to four times without receiving a penalty) making a raft of changes to his car which appear to have unlocked more of its pace.
He set a best time of 1’21.168 on super-soft tyres with less than five minutes to go, beating Fernando Alonso’s best by three-tenths of second.
Lewis Hamilton, who was fastest in both of yesterday’s sessions, aborted both his attempts to set a time on super-soft tyres after running wide at turn one.
Jenson Button was third-fastest in front of Mark Webber, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton’s time on soft tyres was good enough for seventh in front of Michael Schumacher, Vitaly Petrov and Paul di Resta.
Button led the times early on using soft tyres but was quickly knocked down the order as the Red Bulls came out of the pits.
Sebastian Vettel set a series of quicker laps, culminating in a 1’22.021 to head the times.
That was the fastest time set on soft tyres, and it suggests the HRTs may be under pressure to meet the 107% rule in Q1.
Vitantonio Liuzzi was just 0.05s faster than 107% of the fastest time set on soft tyres in final practice.
Combined practice times
| Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Sat/Fri | Laps |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’23.350 | 1’21.018 | 1’22.667 | +1.649 | 62 |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’23.564 | 1’21.549 | 1’21.168 | -0.381 | 72 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’23.642 | 1’21.259 | 1’21.469 | +0.21 | 82 |
| 4 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’23.772 | 1’21.322 | 1’21.639 | +0.317 | 68 |
| 5 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’23.666 | 1’21.508 | 1’21.645 | +0.137 | 65 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’24.115 | 1’22.099 | 1’22.002 | -0.097 | 79 |
| 7 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’24.250 | 1’22.121 | 1’22.534 | +0.413 | 80 |
| 8 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’24.369 | 1’22.440 | 1’23.037 | +0.597 | 75 |
| 9 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’25.336 | 1’22.835 | 1’23.276 | +0.441 | 80 |
| 10 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’22.981 | 1’23.966 | +0.985 | 55 | |
| 11 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’25.113 | 1’23.030 | 1’23.626 | +0.596 | 80 |
| 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’25.093 | 1’24.546 | 1’23.175 | -1.371 | 62 |
| 13 | Nick Heidfeld | Renault | 1’23.861 | 1’23.281 | -0.58 | 41 | |
| 14 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’24.620 | 1’23.399 | 1’23.375 | -0.024 | 79 |
| 15 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’25.836 | 1’23.679 | 1’23.663 | -0.016 | 75 |
| 16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Cosworth | 1’26.124 | 1’24.181 | 1’23.894 | -0.287 | 81 |
| 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’26.099 | 1’24.182 | 1’23.998 | -0.184 | 77 |
| 18 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’25.890 | 1’24.878 | 1’25.061 | +0.183 | 82 |
| 19 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Renault | 1’27.352 | 1’24.994 | 1’25.141 | +0.147 | 79 |
| 20 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’25.357 | 17 | |||
| 21 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Renault | 1’26.878 | 1’25.447 | 1’25.501 | +0.054 | 85 |
| 22 | Bruno Senna | Renault | 1’25.855 | 25 | |||
| 23 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’28.533 | 1’26.823 | 1’27.174 | +0.351 | 79 |
| 24 | Jerome d’Ambrosio | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’28.903 | 1’27.261 | 1’26.955 | -0.306 | 70 |
| 25 | Daniel Ricciardo | HRT-Cosworth | 1’29.904 | 1’27.730 | 1’26.991 | -0.739 | 76 |
| 26 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | HRT-Cosworth | 1’29.059 | 1’28.255 | 1’27.713 | -0.542 | 69 |
2011 Hungarian Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
gwenouille (@gwenouille)
30th July 2011, 11:13
Man you are so quick Keith…
It seems the top 3 will be quite dense this WE.
A bit like last week in fact !
I’d like to see a few of them make a mistake and strat from a Q2 position for a little action. Hungary can be a bit boring at times…
Fixy (@)
30th July 2011, 12:01
I’d call ourselves lucky if one of the top drivers started from a low position…
XbarretmateX
30th July 2011, 11:15
So I am guessing that this is one of Red Bull’s four exceptions from the curfew rule this year?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
30th July 2011, 11:31
Correct. I would assume their first also.
montreal95 (@montreal95)
30th July 2011, 11:18
RBR looking strong, with MW as well, who didn’t have a clean lap.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
30th July 2011, 11:20
According to Autosport, both Virgins and both Hispanias were outside the 107% margin.
DeadManWoking
30th July 2011, 11:33
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
30th July 2011, 11:57
In Q1 the faster cars usually use the harder tyre, in this case the soft, which is why I based my comparison on the fastest time set on soft tyres (as I’ve clearly stated in the part you quoted).
suka (@suka)
30th July 2011, 11:23
If it turns out to be like this (with Hamilton in the top mix) during qualifying, It will be another great weekend.
Elliot Horwood
30th July 2011, 11:24
Bottom 4 cars (Virgins Hispania’s) are out of the 107% BBC said and so did Autosport
BasCB (@bascb)
30th July 2011, 11:39
Yes so these two publications mention.
But it is highly unlikely, that the fastest cars will do any laps on the softer super soft tyres in Q1, therefore Keith bases the analyses on the fastest time set on the soft tyres for more realism.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th July 2011, 11:44
Really unlikely given that the Mercedes cars are a second slower on the super-softs, and the others seem even further away – with the super-softs giving about .8s, the top 4 shouldn’t need to go for options in Q1; maybe Massa will again do that though.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
30th July 2011, 11:35
Hmm this doesn’t help my cause when it comes to predictions. Sounds like Hamilton could have taken this quite easily if not for his mistake.
Eggry (@eggry)
30th July 2011, 11:37
No Way!!
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th July 2011, 11:57
To quote Father Ted Crilly from Father ted: “I can’t believe it”?
Tom L. (@tom-l)
30th July 2011, 11:38
Keith – just a heads up that Jarno Trulli is missing from the “combined practice times” chart.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
30th July 2011, 11:56
Ah, so he is. Fixed it.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th July 2011, 11:39
So was the track slower today for the top runners by some .1-.2s? Or did they all do their “fast” runs with fuel in?
The times suggest Hamilton should at least be able to get 2nd place, if not pole. But that depends on him putting the lack of good super-soft laps in FP3 behind him. Sometimes he is so frustratingly (maybe also splendidly, not sure) unpredictable.
Alonso is clearly looking good, but perhaps not good enough for today, Vettel looking very good; Webber looking to again not put everything together. Button good now, but let’s hope we won’t hear “the car was totally different this afternoon” from him. Massa improving apparently from yesterday, but still some way to go.
George (@george)
30th July 2011, 11:44
Yeah, strange that the track is slower today. I wonder if it’s because of the wind direction as lots of people seemed to be struggling in the middle sector (no idea what the middle sector times are like compared to yesterday, mind).
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th July 2011, 11:48
That might be true, yes; another reason is what 5live said about the support races taking away some of the laid down rubber. Or maybe the hotter temps somehow don’t actually make the tyres more grippy on most cars?
DeadManWoking
30th July 2011, 12:04
P3
Sector #2
Pos No Driver Time
1 5 Fernando Alonso 29.180
2 1 Sebastian Vettel 29.220
3 4 Jenson Button 29.414
4 6 Felipe Massa 29.554
5 2 Mark Webber 29.611
P2
Sector #2
Pos No Driver Time
1 3 Lewis Hamilton 29.017
2 5 Fernando Alonso 29.033
3 6 Felipe Massa 29.197
4 1 Sebastian Vettel 29.232
5 2 Mark Webber 29.319
http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2011/859/6884/best_sector_times.html
schooner (@schooner)
30th July 2011, 11:43
Interesting that Trulli seems to have (so far) gotten the measure of Kovalainen since the power steering improvements. Guess he wasn’t just blowing smoke!
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th July 2011, 11:53
No, he clearly had a point – quite bad though that the team needed half a year to fix it, and that in all that time he couldn’t (didn’t) find a way to work around it. Considering his experience, that is quite shocking to me.
But good for him that he can show he was right about where the trouble was, and let’s hope he can bring them something extra in the race too (Williams, STR inside of a Trulli train? hm).
bananarama
30th July 2011, 12:58
Oh the good old Trulli train .. good memories (actually bad ones but its mandarory to wear rose tinted glasses whrn looking at the past, right?!). Would be fun to see it again because it would mean seeing great quali performamce by him and he’d have to demonstrate his great defensive skills against cars with DRS and possibly KERS.
t3x (@t3x)
30th July 2011, 11:47
Lately Massa has been doing a super soft tyre run in Q1 so they might be out after all.