Hamilton ‘not taking much’ from Mercedes F1 advantage in Hungary

Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton is sure the field will tighten up at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Mercedes appeared to hold an early advantage on Friday.

Hamilton led a dominant Mercedes 1-2 ahead of the Racing Point cars in a dry opening practice session in Hungary, before the afternoon running was hit by wet-weather.

The six-times world champion elected not to set a lap time in a rain-hit FP2 that Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led, nearly three-tenths clear of Valtteri Bottas in the other Mercedes.

But Hamilton has urged caution into reading too much into the times set during Friday practice and expects the chasing pack to close up.

“It was a great first session and we got everything we needed to do from it,” Hamilton said. “There wasn’t really a lot for us to do in that last session.

“I’d just say don’t take too much from it. Everyone is out there doing different running out there in terms of wing, and fuel and engine.

“We got through what we needed to get through and are feeling okay. I think it’s going to be a lot closer when we get P3 and into qualifying.

“There was some work to do with the car but we did that and then it rained, so we won’t know until we get another dry session.”

Asked who he feels will be Mercedes’ main rival this weekend, Hamilton replied: “I haven’t even looked at the timing screens.

“I’m not aware of where everyone is but I imagine this weekend everyone will be closer together because it’s not a power dependent circuit.

“The Ferrari engine has lost a lot of power since last year but that shouldn’t be an issue for them, it should be more down to the car this weekend and the downforce and mechanical grip package that you have.

“I’m hoping for a tighter pack. It would be great to see Renault doing well, it’s fantastic to see McLaren already doing well. It’ll be interesting to see how well they go this weekend with their great car. Racing Point are doing a fantastic as well.

“This is a Red Bull track, it’s always been a strong track for them so I anticipate it’s going to be a tough battle.”

Bottas said it was difficult to “draw many conclusions” from just one dry session, though he insisted he is not concerned about being outpaced by Hamilton despite running on Softer tyres in FP1.

“I wouldn’t draw many conclusions today, we just have to focus on our performance, and we’ll see tomorrow,” he said.

"I could see from the data where the difference was, how the balance of both cars was and also, the difference between the tyre compounds here was a bit less than in Austria. There’s no stress.”