Ricciardo stays fastest; FP2 hit by more red flags

Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing, Hungarian Grand Prix
© XPB 

Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo stayed top of the timesheets in second practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo's best time in the 90-minute session was 1:18.455s. That put him 0.183s ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, with Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas a couple of hundredths slower in third place.

Drivers spent the first half hour of the session running the soft compound tyres. Lewis Hamilton eventually set the early pace for Mercedes, his 1:18.779s putting him a few tenths ahead of Ricciardo and his Red Bull team mate and Verstappen.

Not taking any part in this first phase were Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen. Both drivers were waiting for their teams to complete repairs following red flag incidents in morning practice. Palmer eventually made an appearance before the half hour mark, but Magnussen only came out in the final ten minutes. He was able to complete 11 laps by the end of the session.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was the first driver of the afternoon to switch to supersoft tyres. However, the Ferrari subsequently lost power in turn 13, forcing Raikkonen to reboot the onboard systems to get back underway and return to the pits.

As with the morning session, a number of drivers had brief excursions off the track. Continuing his struggles in the Haas, Romain Grosjean went off at turn 4 early in the session. Meanwhile Williams' Felipe Massa had two spins in quick succession, the first while exiting turn 5 and the second running through the chicane.

The first red flag of the afternoon came after 50 minutes, when Pascal Wehrlein's Sauber stepped out entering turn 11. The front right hit the tyre barrier, spinning the car into a secondary left hand side impact. The incident was quickly cleared up and Wehrlein dispatched to the medical centre for a check over.

The second red flag followed ten minutes later, when Palmer lost the back of the R.S.17 going into the final corner. He caught the initial snap but the car spun the other way and went into the tyre barrier backwards, heavily damaging the right-rear of the just-repaired car.

The interruptions meant that teams had to make do as best they could with long distance runs for the remainder of the session. It left Ricciardo's pre-red flag run on supersofts as the best of the afternoon ahead of Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen. Hamilton never got a proper chance to improve on his early run on soft tyres and was fifth fastest ahead of Verstappen and Nico Hülkenberg.

Hungarian Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

PosDriverTeamTimeGapLaps
1Daniel RicciardoRed Bull1:18.455s32
2Sebastian VettelFerrari1:18.638s+ 0.183s28
3Valtteri BottasMercedes1:18.656s+ 0.201s33
4Kimi RäikkönenFerrari1:18.755s+ 0.300s28
5Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:18.779s+ 0.324s31
6Max VerstappenRed Bull1:18.951s+ 0.496s25
7Nico HülkenbergRenault1:19.714s+ 1.259s33
8Fernando AlonsoMcLaren1:19.815s+ 1.360s31
9Carlos SainzToro Rosso1:19.834s+ 1.379s35
10Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren1:19.909s+ 1.454s18
11Esteban OconForce India1:20.126s+ 1.671s34
12Sergio PérezForce India1:20.266s+ 1.811s33
13Daniil KvyatToro Rosso1:20.577s+ 2.122s37
14Lance StrollWilliams1:20.791s+ 2.336s31
15Felipe MassaWilliams1:20.869s+ 2.414s22
16Jolyon PalmerRenault1:21.175s+ 2.720s12
17Kevin MagnussenHaas1:21.345s+ 2.890s11
18Romain GrosjeanHaas1:21.504s+ 3.049s25
19Marcus EricssonSauber1:21.559s+ 3.104s31
20Pascal WehrleinSauber1:21.722s+ 3.267s16

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