Vettel outpaces Red Bull pair in tight Hungary FP2

Sebastian Vettel put Ferrari on top of the timesheets during second practice for the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, outpacing both Red Bull drivers in another close session. 

Vettel, who is looking to close the gap to chief title rival Lewis Hamilton this weekend following his German Grand Prix disappointment, produced the fastest lap of the weekend so far on a 1m16.834s to beat Max Verstappen to the quickest time by just 0.074s. 

Morning pacesetter Daniel Ricciardo was a further two tenths back in third place, with Kimi Raikkonen once again slotting into fourth, 0.319s adrift of his Ferrari teammate. 

New championship leader Hamilton headed teammate Valtteri Bottas in fifth, but neither Mercedes drivers were able to set representative lap times during their qualifying simulation runs, with Bottas running deep into Turn 12, moments before Hamilton lost control of his car exiting the final corner. 

Boosted by Ferrari’s engine update for its customer teams, Romain Grosjean once again claimed the ‘best of the rest’ tag by setting the seventh-quickest time for Haas, albeit some 1.2s off the pace. 

Renault’s Carlos Sainz could only get within 0.430s of Grosjean’s low-fuel lap time, but his effort was still good enough for eighth, narrowly ahead of Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso and Esteban Ocon, who rounded out the top 10 for Force India. 

Teammate Sergio Perez was a tenth further back in 11th, with the Mexican outpacing Fernando Alonso by just 0.007s.

Next up came the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, with the German sidelined for most of the afternoon session while Renault fitted a new energy store to his car as a precaution following the issue that curtailed his FP1. 

Brendon Hartley was 15th fastest for Toro Rosso as Marcus Ericsson survived his third spin of the day at Turn 9 to pip Sauber teammate Charles Leclerc, who returned to the cockpit of his C37 after Antonio Giovinazzi’s morning practice appearance.

Despite a chassis change ahead of the weekend, Stoffel Vandoorne’s struggles showed no signs of stopping in FP2 as he suffered a high-speed spin having dipped a wheel onto the grass at Turn 5 on his way to 19th. 

The McLaren driver finished the session just 0.067s behind Williams’ Lance Stroll with his best time coming on the Soft tyres. He had been set for an improvement until his error which came during his first Ultrasoft run, leaving him ahead of only Sergey Sirotkin in the timesheets.