Hamilton leads McLaren team-mate Button in first Friday practice for Hungarian GP

Hamilton moved to the head of the order after 34 minutes, and was never deposed. He gradually improved his time and by the halfway point was down to a 1m22.821s, which stood as the best of the session.

Button had a few seconds in first place before Hamilton supplanted him, and then kept in touch with his team-mate to finish the morning 0.101 seconds behind.

The McLarens were just over half a second clear of the field. Fernando Alonso put his Ferrari up to third late on, shuffling the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher down to fourth and fifth, ahead of the second Ferrari of Felipe Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen continued to evaluate Lotus's 'double DRS' in seventh place, followed by team-mate Romain Grosjean.

Williams reserve driver Valtteri Bottas showed well in ninth place, while the Sauber of Sergio Perez completed the top 10. Other 'Friday drivers' in action were Force India's Jules Bianchi - who took Nico Hulkenberg's car to 18th - and HRT's Dani Clos, in for Narain Karthikeyan and 1.1s off team-mate Pedro de la Rosa in last place.

Red Bull kept a low profile, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel only 13th and 15th.

The Hungaroring's ample asphalt run-off areas saw visits from several cars, but the closest the session came to drama was when Pastor Maldonado's Williams took a messy detour through the Turn 10 gravel trap after being caught out trying to pass Heikki Kovalainen's slower-moving Caterham.


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time               Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m22.821             30
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m22.922s  + 0.101   24
 3.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m23.397s  + 0.576   24
 4.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m23.628s  + 0.807   29
 5.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault          1m23.633s  + 0.812   24
 6.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m23.845s  + 1.024   26
 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m23.904s  + 1.083   25
 8.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault          1m23.983s  + 1.162   24
 9.  Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault       1m24.152s  + 1.331   24
10.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m24.268s  + 1.447   27
11.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault       1m24.300s  + 1.479   23
12.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m24.394s  + 1.573   19
13.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m24.546s  + 1.725   24
14.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m24.559s  + 1.738   22
15.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m24.608s  + 1.787   25
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m25.354s  + 2.533   25
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m25.559s  + 2.738   27
18.  Jules Bianchi         Force India-Mercedes   1m25.715s  + 2.894   26
19.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault       1m26.440s  + 3.619   27
20.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth      1m26.705s  + 3.884   23
21.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault       1m26.755s  + 3.934   28
22.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth      1m27.015s  + 4.194   24
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth           1m27.101s  + 4.280   21
24.  Dani Clos             HRT-Cosworth           1m28.176s  + 5.355   24

All Timing Unofficial