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Grand Prix practice results: Bottas fastest in Hungary F1

Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes was fastest in the opening day of Hungarian Grand Prix practice at the Hungaroring on Friday, the 11th round of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship season.

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes W12

Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

After the British Grand Prix’s sprint format debut, practice reverted to a pair of one-hour Friday sessions in Budapest.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fastest ahead of Bottas in FP1 but he struggled with his car's balance in FP2, and Bottas led team-mate Lewis Hamilton in setting the fastest times of the day overall.

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Hungarian Grand Prix FP1 results: Verstappen fastest from Bottas

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 21 1'17.555     203.360
2 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 26 1'17.616 0.061 0.061 203.200
3 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 25 1'17.722 0.167 0.106 202.923
4 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 24 1'18.115 0.560 0.393 201.902
5 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 27 1'18.181 0.626 0.066 201.731
6 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 26 1'18.385 0.830 0.204 201.206
7 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 23 1'18.391 0.836 0.006 201.191
8 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 20 1'18.466 0.911 0.075 200.999
9 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 26 1'18.649 1.094 0.183 200.531
10 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 25 1'18.755 1.200 0.106 200.261
11 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 26 1'18.765 1.210 0.010 200.236
12 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 18 1'18.770 1.215 0.005 200.223
13 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 22 1'18.989 1.434 0.219 199.668
14 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 27 1'19.265 1.710 0.276 198.973
15 United Kingdom George Russell Williams 24 1'19.724 2.169 0.459 197.827
16 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 24 1'19.824 2.269 0.100 197.579
17 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 26 1'20.383 2.828 0.559 196.205
18 Poland Robert Kubica Alfa Romeo 23 1'20.639 3.084 0.256 195.582
19 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin Haas 23 1'20.992 3.437 0.353 194.730
20 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 5 1'21.889 4.334 0.897 192.597

What happened in Free Practice 1?

Verstappen set the early pace during a long opening run, as Honda checked out his engine that was involved in his 51g accident at Silverstone, working down to 1m19.025s on the hard tyres.

Mercedes ran the soft tyres relatively early, with Bottas producing 1m17.616s to lead the way. Hamilton got within 0.106s of that for P2 with 20 minutes to go.

The session was then interrupted by Yuki Tsunoda crashing his AlphaTauri at Turn 4, causing a red flag.

At the resumption, Verstappen fitted softs and unleashed a lap of 1m17.555s, beating Bottas by 0.061s. Hamilton was third on 1m17.722s.

Carlos Sainz was best of the rest for Ferrari, over half a second down with a time of 1m18.115s. Pierre Gasly was fifth for AlphaTauri, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Alpine. The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was seventh from Lando Norris (McLaren) and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Hungarian Grand Prix FP2 results: Bottas fastest from Hamilton

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Finland Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 29 1'17.012     204.794
2 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 27 1'17.039 0.027 0.027 204.722
3 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 24 1'17.310 0.298 0.271 204.004
4 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 29 1'17.759 0.747 0.449 202.826
5 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 23 1'17.824 0.812 0.065 202.657
6 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 31 1'18.113 1.101 0.289 201.907
7 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 27 1'18.169 1.157 0.056 201.762
8 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 31 1'18.228 1.216 0.059 201.610
9 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 25 1'18.313 1.301 0.085 201.391
10 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 30 1'18.320 1.308 0.007 201.373
11 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 30 1'18.370 1.358 0.050 201.245
12 Spain Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 32 1'18.441 1.429 0.071 201.063
13 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 26 1'18.737 1.725 0.296 200.307
14 Finland Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 21 1'19.277 2.265 0.540 198.942
15 United Kingdom George Russell Williams 29 1'19.292 2.280 0.015 198.905
16 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 30 1'19.479 2.467 0.187 198.437
17 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 3 1'19.671 2.659 0.192 197.959
18 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 29 1'19.817 2.805 0.146 197.597
19 Italy Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 28 1'20.186 3.174 0.369 196.687
20 Russian Federation Nikita Mazepin Haas 28 1'21.881 4.869 1.695 192.616

What happened in Free Practice 2?

In FP2, Bottas set the early pace on mediums at 1m18.376s – 0.046s clear of Verstappen after the first runs, with Hamilton almost half a second slower. After a visit to the pits, Hamilton went for a second run and jumped to the top on 1m18.140s, while Sebastian Vettel got to within 0.088s of the pace using soft tyres on his Aston.

As in FP1, the Mercedes duo again went early to run the softs, with Bottas producing 1m17.012s and Hamilton achieving 1m17.039s, which was 0.027s slower.

Verstappen’s soft run was poor, 0.298s off the pace, and he complained of massive understeer. Team-mate Perez, eight-tenths off the pace, was beaten to the fourth-fastest time by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon. Gasly was sixth, ahead of Alonso, Vettel, Norris and Stroll.

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