Hamilton happy despite 'irrelevant' wet FP2 session

Lewis Hamilton was satisfied with his opening day of work at the Hungaroring although the Mercedes driver felt Friday's afternoon session was rendered "irrelevant" by the rain.

After leading the timesheet in FP1, Hamilton was only third fastest in FP2, with track time compromised by the light rain.

The reigning world champion argued against running in the rain-impacted session when the remainder of the weekend is predicted to be dry.

"There’s just really not much point going out in the wet," he said.

"Nowadays, if you know Sunday is going to be wet and Saturday is going to be wet and it will be a completely wet weekend, you can make subtle changes to help with the wet balance.

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"But it’s kind of irrelevant now, especially when you know the race is going to be mostly dry, then you just focus on getting the best setup in the dry and then you deal with it in the wet."

Hamilton was nevertheless happy with his performance in FP1, including his personal performance after feeling unwell in Germany.

"I wanted to come back into the weekend feeling better and getting straight on it," he added.

"The car's balance was quite nice straight from the get-go. We made some changes in between the sessions, but unfortunately we didn't really get to test it."

On the other side of the garage, it was a difficult day for Valtteri Bottas with an engine issue in the morning and conditions limiting the Finn's running in the afternoon.

"During my first timed lap in FP1 I had an issue with the engine where I lost power," explained Bottas.

"The engine went into a safety mode so I had to come back in. The team couldn't find the issue immediately, so we decided to swap the Power Unit for FP2.

"We were hoping for more laps in the afternoon, but the weather conditions meant that I only got three proper timed laps in in the dry and a couple in the wet.

"But at least the car felt good on the few laps I drove it. I got a feel for the car balance and an idea of what we need to work on for tomorrow.

"In the wet, the car felt better than it did last weekend, with a nicer balance and more grip. I'm looking forward to properly starting my race weekend tomorrow."

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