Practice Report Provided By Pirelli
All the teams have driven Pirelli’s newest Formula One tyres during free practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix, in temperatures that were among the highest seen all season. Temperatures rose to 33 degrees centigrade ambient and 46 degrees on the track today and are expected to be even higher for qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday.
Just like last year, the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft tyres have been nominated for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel was quickest in both free practice sessions, using the medium tyre in the morning and then the soft tyre in the afternoon to set his quickest time of 1m21.264s – more than half a second faster than the equivalent fastest FP2 time last year.
Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “The track was extremely ‘green’ and slippery this morning with very little grip, as is often the case first thing on Friday. There was more grip in the afternoon, but with temperatures that were even higher: on Sunday we’re likely to see what could be the hottest grand prix of the year so far.
Despite these extreme conditions, both the performance and durability of our new tyres are in line with our expectations, with very little sign of any graining or blistering. The feedback from the drivers and teams so far has been very positive.
The performance gap between the two compounds today was around 1.5 seconds and we are likely to see between two and three pit stops during the race, with the majority of the field qualifying on the soft tyre. We have a new pit lane speed limit from this grand prix onwards of 80 kilometres per hour, which puts around four seconds on the total pit stop time.
This too is likely to have a big effect on the strategy, which makes the work carried out today all the more important when it comes to planning team tactics – particularly as it’s hard to gain track position at the Hungaroring through overtaking alone.”
Fastest tyre of the day:
FP1: FP2:
1. Vettel 1m22.723s Medium Used 1. Vettel 1m21.264s Soft New
2. Webber 1m22.982s Medium Used 2. Webber 1m21.308s Soft New
3. Raikkonen 1m23.010s Medium Used 3. Grosjean 1m21.417s Soft New
Tyre statistics of the day:
Soft Medium Intermediate Wet
kms driven * 1,362 4,450 N/A N/A
sets used overall ** 22 44 N/A N/A
highest number of laps ** 20 32 N/A N/A
* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.
May the Force be with you:
Max. g-force braking (longitudinal force): -4.33 @ T1
Max. g-force cornering (lateral force): 4.88 @ T3
Pirelli facts of the day:
Although qualifying is said to be extremely important at the tight and twisty Hungaroring, only 12 of the 27 races held there have been won from pole. But reigning champion Sebastian Vettel is not one of those winners: along with Austin in the United States, this is the only race currently on the calendar that the German has never won. To date, 13 different drivers in seven different cars have led a grand prix this year.
2013 Hungarian GP Friday Practice Sebastian Vettel © Pirelli
I just watched FP2, as generally nothing much happens in FP1.
Red Bull are in a league of their own. They will walk this race, regardless of what the weather does (unless lightning strikes Vettel’s car that is :p). There is not even a competition, long runs on both compounds, Red Bull were easily 1s faster than the rest of the field.
Ferrari are quick, I think Alonso was doing low-middle 1.27s on the medium tyres which was very respectable. Couldn’t see what happened on the soft tyre for Ferrari but I suspect they have enough to make both compounds durable.
Couldn’t get Lotus long runs on the live streaming so I’ll switch straight to Mercedes. They’re hard to read but overall they will be 3rd/4th best. Hamilton was doing high 1.27s on the medium tyre, Rosberg was doing medium 1.28s on the medium as well. I think Hamilton did low 1.27s/high 1.26s on the soft tyre but I don’t think the run was all that long. But I am not super optimistic for my team. I was initially hoping for the hard tyre to be here today but given it was changed, it was always going to be a struggle.
Force India looked like they were struggling, but I think the tyres changing are the reason for this. They were in the low 1.29s, by memory, on their long runs on the medium compounds. McLaren were that group too, though Perez did some middle 1.28s on the medium tyre so they should have a clean shot at the last point-positions.
For the others, I didn’t see their long runs that much. IntelligentF1 will have the charts for each driver and it will be much more thorough than my rough sum-up here, but that’s just my 2 pences on the matter. I will be hoping for a damage-limitation weekend given the very high temperatures we’re having in Europe right now.
Pretty much agree with you, RBR, Ferrari/Lotus, Merc, Macca/FI seems to be the pecking order.