F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Gasly tops rain disrupted FP2 session in Hungary

Red Bull's Pierre Gasly topped Friday's dry-to-wet FP2 at the Hungaroring, the Frenchman making the most of the dry conditions that prevailed in the early part of the afternoon session.

Gasly's fastest time was 0.055s faster than teammate Max Verstappen, while Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was third, ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Renault's Daniel Ricciardo.

Friday's second free practice started once again under inauspicious skies but on a dry track.

After being forced to sit out FP1 following an engine change, Valtteri Bottas was ready to go, and indeed the Finn was the first man to venture out when the lights went green.

Bottas led the field at the outset but the session was interrupted after just a few laps when Toro Rosso's Alex Albon put a wheel on the grass at the final corner, his car slamming the wall on the outside of the track and incurring some big damage.

©Mercedes

After the Toro Rosso was craned away the track went green once again, and Bottas picked up where he left off, laying down a 1m18.289s lap.

The Mercedes driver was followed by Renault's Daniel Ricciardo but not for long as Hamilton overhauled the pair to go fastest with a lap in 1m18.110s.

Minutes later however, Red Bull's soft-shod Pierre Gasly jumped to the top with a 1m17.854, followed by Verstappen on mediums and Hamilton on a set of hards.

Thirty minutes into the afternoon session the rain set in, bringing the action to a halt except for a brief run by Bottas on intermediates.

Several other drivers eventually toured at low speed on inters, including Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen who immediately head back to the pits.

Perhaps distracted, the Finn was caught out by the pitlane speed gun and duly fined €600 for exceeding the 80km/h limit by 5.8km/h!

©Haas

A track that was too wet for slicks but too dry for inters was a deterrent for most, and the action remained subdued 60 minutes into the session.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz ventured out only to radio in to inform his team that its "raining more than ever". However, the Spaniard was told that none of the marshals' posts were reporting any rain.

"The marshals must be having a beer," quipped Sainz!

As the rain increased, at least it took away any doubts about the use of inters, which Raikkonen and then George Russell demonstrated as they tip-toed around the circuit, 20 seconds off the pace.

Gradually, others followed for some final intermediate fun for the day, with Leclerc appearing happy to fly over the kerbs despite the tricky conditions.

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Michael Delaney

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