Hungarian Grand Prix practice

Team McLaren may have found themselves flashing back to 2008 with the best times in both the morning and afternoon practice sessions as Formula One gets ready for Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton bumped his team mate Heikki Kovalainen from the top spot as time expired in the afternoon session. Heikki's time had been the best time for most of the session and he did claim the best time of the morning session, while Lewis had the 3rd best time in the AM session.

Lewis Hamilton does have a habit of performing well at the Hungaroring, he has started from pole in every Formula One race he ever has run in Hungary. Of course, practice times are doubly meaningless in 2009 racing, teams never show all their cards in practice, and with testing during the season banned this year, the teams test all types of different configurations, and may even test their 2010 modifications during practice. Still, McLaren has now gone 10 races without a podium, but the aero mods which were in place on Hamilton's car (but not Heikki's) at the German Grand Prix have clearly made a dramatic difference in the pace of their race car.

Does this mean McLaren is now a podium threat?

Last week's winner Mark Webber, when asked about it after practice Friday, agreed that McLaren is now competitive, "Yes" said Webber. "It's not just McLaren though, it's Brawn, Ferrari, Toyota. There's loads of guys. It's a short track and it's very repetitive in terms of corners. It won't be this tight in Suzuka where the good cars have a chance to use their aerodynamics. "We're in the hunt, for sure. I don't think we're off the pace. We're part of the pace. But as expected here it looks like there's a few more boys coming to the party." 

The practice session also marked the debut of new Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari , who replaced Sebastian Bourdais this past week. Alguersuari unsurprisingly finished last in both sessions, but still the 19 year old (youngest ever in F1) was impressive nevertheless, as he avoided any major mishaps in his first ever drive in a Formula One race car.

As for the Brawn and Red Bull teams, who seem to be the only two teams at this stage that are odds on favorite to claim the championship this year, Red Bull still looked stronger than Brawn for the most part. Both teams seemed to struggle somewhat with tire grip, especially Brawn, even with the high temperatures at the track. The best either Brawn car could achieve was 10th fastest time by points leader Jenson Button in the first session. This season's practice all-star Nico Rosberg also performed well in both sessions, with Nico looking confident off his best performance of the season, 4th in Germany two weeks ago.

Ferrari on the other hand appears to be having all kinds of difficulties with tire grip, Felipe Massa was off track several times in the afternoon session. The Ferrari team has axed their aerodynamics engineer this week, so the word is they may be already diverting much of their development to the 2010 car.

 

Whats so exciting about this weeks' race is Hungary has a long history of drama, there just seems to always be a major surprise of some type or another happening at the Hungaroring. Pole is crucial of course, and the first turn and first few laps are always very exciting in Hungary. Tire wear will be a major factor, and that means pit stops and tire strategy may have an even bigger impact then normally on the outcome. Lewis really enjoys this track, Heikki has also won here, so this may be McLaren's first opportunity to really shine this year. Red Bull and Brawn should still be favored, but if the McLaren's get in the top 3 in qualifying on Saturday, their KERS and all the work the team invested in the new aero package may give the team the advantage they have been looking for since 2008.

First Practice
Friday, 24 July 2009

1 Heikki Kovalainen 2 McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.278
2 Nico Rosberg 16 Williams-Toyota 1:22.337
3 Lewis Hamilton 1 McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.554
4 Mark Webber 14 Red Bull-Renault 1:22.615
5 Kazuki Nakajima 17 Williams-Toyota 1:22.619
6 Jarno Trulli 9 Toyota 1:22.705
7 Kimi Raikkonen 4 Ferrari 1:22.796
8 Felipe Massa 3 Ferrari 1:22.855
9 Fernando Alonso 7 Renault 1:23.001
10 Jenson Button 22 Brawn-Mercedes 1:23.130
11 Robert Kubica 5 BMW Sauber 1:23.146
12 Nick Heidfeld 6 BMW Sauber 1:23.154
13 Rubens Barrichello 23 Brawn-Mercedes 1:23.209
14 Timo Glock 10 Toyota 1:23.234
15 Sebastian Vettel 15 Red Bull-Renault 1:23.283
16 Giancarlo Fisichella 21 Force India-Mercedes 1:23.484
17 Nelson Piquet Jr 8 Renault 1:23.678
18 Adrian Sutil 20 Force India-Mercedes 1:23.845
19 Sebastien Buemi 12 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.998
20 Jaime Alguersuari 11 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:24.228

Second Practice
Friday, 24 July 2009

1 Lewis Hamilton 1 McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.079
2 Heikki Kovalainen 2 McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.126
3 Nico Rosberg 16 Williams-Toyota 1:22.154
4 Mark Webber 14 Red Bull-Renault 1:22.369
5 Kazuki Nakajima 17 Williams-Toyota 1:22.426
6 Sebastian Vettel 15 Red Bull-Renault 1:22.550
7 Rubens Barrichello 23 Brawn-Mercedes 1:22.641
8 Jarno Trulli 9 Toyota 1:22.663
9 Nick Heidfeld 6 BMW Sauber 1:22.690
10 Timo Glock 10 Toyota 1:22.751
11 Kimi Raikkonen 4 Ferrari 1:22.763
12 Fernando Alonso 7 Renault 1:22.793
13 Jenson Button 22 Brawn-Mercedes 1:22.806
14 Robert Kubica 5 BMW Sauber 1:22.870
15 Nelson Piquet Jr 8 Renault 1:22.927
16 Adrian Sutil 20 Force India-Mercedes 1:22.978
17 Giancarlo Fisichella 21 Force India-Mercedes 1:23.029
18 Felipe Massa 3 Ferrari 1:23.156
19 Sebastien Buemi 12 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.176
20 Jaime Alguersuari 11 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.942

Here is the Hungarian GP Virtual Lap from speedtv:

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