Raikkonen keeps up the pace for Ferrari in morning test

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Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was substantially fastest on the second morning of Formula 1 in-season testing in Hungary.

The Finn's best time of 1:16.171s on soft tyres proved to be over two seconds faster than anyone else managed at the Hungaroring so far today. It's just one thousandth of a second slower than Sebastian Vettel's time in FP3 on Saturday.

Mercedes' George Russell had got proceedings underway with the first outing of the day, posting a first time of 1:25.003s which he immediately improved by more than two seconds on his second tour.

After the first quarter of an hour, Lando Norris took charge with a lap of 1:20.107s in the McLaren, before Raikkonen stamped Ferrari's authority on the morning shortly before the first half-hour mark.

Raikkonen continued to get even faster on soft tyres, before the first red flag of the day materialised for Force India's Nikita Mazepin coming to a halt heading into turn 11. He did not get back out on track before the lunch break.

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The session soon resumed, but it was another hour before Robert Kubica made his first appearance on the timing screens with a lap of 1:20.078s on soft tyres to put himself seventh fastest in the Williams

The Pole soon improved by leaps and bounds, and a run on the ultrasofts meant he ended the morning in second. Even though it was some way off the blistering pace set by Raikkonen, Kubica's time was better than either of Williams regular race drivers had managed in FP3.

Having moved from the Pirelli test car to the official Toro Rosso entry, Sean Gelael bounced back from his Tuesday mishap to go fourth fastest on hypersoft tyres in the official Toro Rosso car by the time the teams broke for lunch.

Also switching cars today was Tuesday pacesetter Antonio Giovinazzi. Having been fastest with Ferrari on Tuesday - when he was half a second quicker on hypersofts than Raikkonen's best soft time this morning - he was only sixth on Wednesday in the Sauber before the mid-session interval.

Making his first F1 test appearance, Renault test and development driver Artem Markelov completed 49 laps, including a soft-tyre run in the final hour that put him eighth fastest.

Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley was on Pirelli test duty this morning. Not focussed on pace, he was slowest of those at work on Wednesday morning and will hand over the second STR13 to Pierre Gasly this afternoon.

Teams complete their final day of in-season testing at the Hungaroring after lunch.

Hungary in-season test, Wednesday morning

1. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 69 laps, 1m16.171s
2. Robert Kubica, Williams, 38 laps, 1m18.451s
3. Lando Norris, McLaren, 50 laps, 1m18.768s
4. Sean Gelael, Toro Rosso, 61 laps, 1m19.046s
5. George Russell, Mercedes, 56 laps, 1m19.156s
6. Antonio Giovinazzi, Sauber, 64 laps, 1m19.413s
7. Nikita Mazepin, Force India, 27 laps, 1m20.016s
8. Artem Markelov, Renault, 49 laps, 1m20.054s
9. Jake Dennis, Red Bull, 56 laps, 1m20.177s
10. Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso, 67 laps, 1m20.221s (Pirelli)

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.