Friday test: Renault dominates
Renault's Fernando Alonso set the pace in the Friday test session for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Spaniard lapping well clear of his two colleagues, Allan McNish and Jarno Trulli
Test driver McNish was fastest for much of the session, until Alonso got into his stride. His best effort was 1m22.230s, 0.625s faster than McNish. Trulli was a further two-tenths back as the Renault's locked out the top three spots.
The notoriously dusty Hungaroring track meant that the 'Friday track cleaners' lived up to their billing to begin with, as lap times started in the high 1m30s and ended up in the low 1m20s. Early spinners included Mark Webber (Jaguar) and Jos Verstappen (Minardi), while local hero Zsolt Baumgartner left it until the last 30mins to spin off in his Jordan.
One man who suffered a truly awful start to his Hungarian GP weekend was Giancarlo Fisichella, whose Jordan pulled off on the exit of Turn 1 with smoke pouring from its Ford Cosworth engine after just five laps. He got out for the last 10 minutes of the session, but pulled off again a lap later when the rear wheels of his car appeared to lock solid.
Other Cosworth units that blew were in the back of Webber's Jaguar and Nicolas Kiesa's Minardi, the latter in particular producing a huge cloud of smoke in its wake. Webber ended the session fourth fastest, but was 1.5secs off the pace.
Jag colleague Justin Wilson was next up, ahead of Minardi's Jos Verstappen. Surprisingly, Baumgartner was the fastest of the Jordans, outpacing Ralph Firman by 0.6secs. Fisichella, meanwhile, was last due to his problems.
Kiesa also outpaced Firman in his Minardi, while Gianmaria Bruni completed 30 laps but was 0.8s off Kiesa's pace.
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