» Vettel shades Verstappen in FP2

The Hungarian Grand Prix looks set to be a close tussle between Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, with both teams sharing Friday practice session honours at the Hungaroring.

After Daniel Ricciardo lapped quickest in the opening practice session, less than one-tenth of a second quicker than Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, the top-three FP1 runners were again in the mix on a baking track surface.

This time it was Sebastian Vettel who led the way in his Ferrari, keen to shrug off the impact of throwing away a potential win on home soil last weekend when he crashed out of the lead of the race. The German posted an impressive 1:16.834, lapping just 0.074 seconds faster than Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing. FP1 pace-setter Ricciardo was third-quickest, less than a quarter of a second adrift, with the second Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen fourth-fastest.

With the Ultrasoft tyres barely able to last a lap around the twisty Hungaroring circuit, the Ferrari and Red Bull Racing cars looked better able to hook up a lap time.

The Mercedes entries of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished a distant fifth and sixth fastest respectively, with championship leader Hamilton three-quarters of a second slower. While the Mercedes team has already conceded that its F1W09 chassis is not as suited to the Hungaroring as other circuits on the calendar, in fairness neither Hamilton nor Bottas was able to post a clean qualifying-style lap during the session.

Bottas’ best lap – which featured an error at Turn 12 – was only two-tenths of a second quicker than Haas’ Romain Grosjean, as the Frenchman repeated his FP1 feat of leading the midfield runners.

Renault’s hopes that the perceived advantages of its RS18 chassis would negate the horsepower disadvantage of its engines appeared misplaced. Carlos Sainz Jr was almost half a second slower than Grosjean en route to being eighth-fastest overall. Teammate Nico Hülkenberg had a delayed start to his session while his mechanics replaced his Energy Store after it failed in FP1, consigning the German to an unrepresentative fourteenth on the timesheets.

Pierre Gasly provided some cheer to Toro Rosso by lapping his Honda-powered STR13 ninth-fastest, quicker than the Force India pairing of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez.

Fernando Alonso finished twelfth-fastest in his McLaren ahead of the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen, who complained during the session of an issue with his upgraded Ferrari power unit.

Behind Hülkenberg, Brendon Hartley led the two Saubers of Marcus Ericsson – who had his third spin of the weekend – and teammate Charles Leclerc, having his first outing in the car this weekend after sitting out FP1 in place of reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi. Highlighting how closely competitive the midfield battle is expected to be this weekend, Ericsson’s best time was less than a second of Grosjean’s.

The bottom of the timesheets featured the usual suspects, with the understeering Williams’ of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin sandwiching the second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne – the Belgian was running a new chassis after complaining bitterly about his previous MCL33 chassis in Germany where he was well off the pace.

Saturday’s on-track sees the third practice session take place at 12:00 followed by qualifying at 15:00 local time (GMT +2).

FORMULA 1 ROLEX MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2018 – FREE PRACTICE SESSION 2 TIMES
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:16.834		45
2.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:16.908	+ 0.074	35
3.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:17.061	+ 0.227	36
4.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:17.153	+ 0.319	40
5.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:17.587	+ 0.753	43
6.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:17.868	+ 1.034	46
7.	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:18.065	+ 1.231	39
8.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:18.495	+ 1.661	38
9.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:18.518	+ 1.684	43
10.	Esteban Ocon	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:18.761	+ 1.927	41
11.	Sergio Pérez	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:18.850	+ 2.016	42
12.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:18.857	+ 2.023	38
13.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:18.880	+ 2.046	35
14.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:18.913	+ 2.079	23
15.	Brendon Hartley	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:18.916	+ 2.082	41
16.	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:19.043	+ 2.209	42
17.	Charles Leclerc	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:19.137	+ 2.303	38
18.	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:19.645	+ 2.811	45
19.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:19.712	+ 2.878	38
20.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:19.770	+ 2.936	45