Formula 1 News

Hungarian GP, 1st Free Practice Session: Kubica quickest 

Robert Kubica set the fastest lap time this morning in bright and sunny conditions at Hungaroring. One year on from his Formula One debut with the BMW Sauber team, the Polish driver used a set of super soft Bridgestone tires late in the 90-minute session to lap the 4.374 KM circuit in 1’22”390, just over a tenth faster than his nearest rival.

Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were second and third fastest for Ferrari, sticking with the harder tire. Raikkonen in particular looked right on the pace and were it not for seemingly never-ending traffic, he could well have beaten Kubica’s best.

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were closely matched for McLaren Mercedes as they took positions four and five. The MP4-22 is expected to be the car to beat this weekend, as the tight and twisty nature of the circuit is expected to play to the chassis’ strength’s.

Nick Heidfeld, like BMW Sauber team-mate Kubica, opted for the soft tyres for his fast lap, but an error exiting the final turn saw him run wide and onto the dirt. Still, the lap time was good enough for sixth fastest overall but it was interesting to note that he could not improve again as the tyre went away.

Nico Rosberg was another to use the soft tyre in his Williams Toyota and he set the seventh best time ahead of the Honda duo of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.
Honda struggled a great deal with grip this morning, with Barrichello spinning at turn one and Button complaining of a fundamental lack of grip.

Ralf Schumacher set the pace early in the session and his tenth position overall is not a true reflection of his pace. Toyota team-mate Jarno Trulli was 12th fastest with Anthony Davidson in between in his Super Aguri Honda.

Alex Wurz was 13th in the second Williams ahead of David Coulthard in his Red Bull Renault. Mark Webber stopped on track two-thirds of the way through the session and his Renault-powered RB3 was wheeled back up the pit lane not to be seen again. Webber has been 12th at the time but dropped to 20th by the time the chequered flag flew.

Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella showed little pace with Renault as they set the 15th and 17th fastest times respectively. Sebastian Vettel made his Toro Rosso Ferrari debut and was a solid 16th fastest while team-mate Tonio Liuzzi his mechanical troubles and was 18th best ahead of Takuma Sato in the second Super Aguri.

Adrian Sutil was 21st while Sakon Yamamoto brought up the rear on his debut in the Spyker Ferrari team.