A challenging day of free practice at the Hungaroring was characterised by some of the highest track temperatures ever seen by Pirelli in Formula 1, which then fell rapidly as some clouds came over the circuit. Coupled with a slippery and ‘green’ track, as well as the short lap at the Hungaroring, the difference between the top four frontrunners was very close after free practice.

Drivers used the sessions to carry out the usual work, assessing different tyres with different fuel loads, in order to find out in particular what the degradation rate of the ultrasoft could be – which is being used in Hungary for the first time. This will be one of the keys to determining whether the optimal race strategy on Sunday will consist of one or two stops.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“The extremely varied track temperature, as well as the usual considerations that come into play on Friday with a green track, means that as usual it’s quite hard to draw many firm conditions from today’s sessions straight away, although it’s clear that the top teams in particular are closely matched. The black asphalt here means that plenty of heat is always retained by the asphalt, which is a consideration. If conditions tomorrow remain as hot as they were today, it will be especially important to carefully put the tyres into their peak operating window during the preparation laps for qualifying. With overtaking being very difficult at the Hungaroring, qualifying is set to be particularly important.”.

FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME   	  COMPOUND
Ricciardo 	1m17.613s SOFT NEW
Vettel		1m17.692s ULTRASOFT NEW
Verstappen 	1m17.701s SOFT NEW

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME 	  COMPOUND
Vettel 		1m16.834s ULTRASOFT NEW
Verstappen 	1m16.908s ULTRASOFT NEW
Ricciardo 	1m17.061s ULTRASOFT NEW

FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	  TIME
ULTRASOFT 	Vettel 	  1m17.692s
SOFT 		Ricciardo 1m17.613s
MEDIUM 		Bottas 	  1m18.489s

FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   TIME
ULTRASOFT 	Vettel 	   1m16.834s
SOFT 		Verstappen 1m17.509s
MEDIUM Raikkonen 1m18.825s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   LAPS
ULTRASOFT 	Alonso 	   28
SOFT 		Vandoorne  35
MEDIUM 		Sirotkin   31

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
			MEDIUM	SOFT	ULTRASOFT
Kms driven* 		1047 	2216 	2479
Sets used overall** 	13 	31 	36

* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.