Formula 1 News

Hamilton tops practice; keeps dominating the field

The McLaren driver seems highly motivated and looks confortable at the top. Alonso marked the second best time.

Friday, July 29, 2011

BUDAPEST, Hungary, July 29, 2011 (AFP) - Lewis Hamilton picked up on Friday where he left off in Germany last Sunday by delivering the fastest times for
McLaren in both opening free practice sessions ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old Briton, who won the world title in 2008, clocked a best lap time of one minute and 21.018 seconds, to top the speed charts and endorse the
impression that he has regained top form after winning last weekend's race at the Nurburgring.

Hamilton wound up fastest ahead of two-times champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari with his McLaren team-mate Briton Jenson Button, the 2009 champion,
third fastest.

Australian Mark Webber was fourth quickest for Red Bull ahead of his team-mate, defending champion and runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel
of Germany with Brazilian Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari down in sixth.

German Nico Rosberg was seventh just ahead of his Mercedes team-mate and compatriot seven-times champion Michael Schumacher, 42, with Briton Paul Di Resta ninth for Force India ahead of his team-mate German Adrian Sutil.

Spaniard Alonso, on his 30th birthday, dominated the early stages of the session with successive fastest times either side of a chart-topping lap from
Button.

Alonso then broke the 1:22 barrier with a lap in 1:21.259 before Hamilton cut two tenths of a second off that time with half an hour remaining. The Red Bulls did not appear to be too interested in going for outright pace at this stage and were working on long stints and tyre testing, until the final 10 minutes when they ran on the 'super soft' rubber.

All this left many close observers analysing the weather forecasts, temperatures and potential levels of tyre wear for clues as to the underlying performance potential for qualifying on Saturday.

See results for the second practice session below:

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX PRACTICE 2 TIMES (FP2)
POS	No.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.018		29
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:21.259	0.241	40
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.322	0.304	34
4	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:21.508	0.490	35
5	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:21.549	0.531	31
6	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:22.099	1.081	40
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:22.121	1.103	36
8	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:22.440	1.422	36
9	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:22.835	1.817	40
10	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:22.981	1.963	37
11	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:23.030	2.012	34
12	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:23.399	2.381	37
13	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:23.679	2.661	34
14	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	1:23.861	2.843	28
15	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:24.181	3.163	39
16	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	1:24.182	3.164	26
17	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	1:24.546	3.528	21
18	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:24.878	3.860	35
19	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:24.994	3.976	38
20	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	1:25.447	4.429	39
21	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	1:26.823	5.805	33
22	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:27.261	6.243	28
23	22	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1:27.730	6.712	31
24	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:28.255	7.237	25