Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Practice Recap

Friday consisted of two 60-minute sessions – FP1 and FP2 – around the 4.381-kilometer (2.722-mile), 14-turn circuit. With rain and thunder showers on the horizon for Saturday’s track action – it was a contrasting sky above for the opening sessions with brilliant sunshine and air temperature hitting a peak of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by late afternoon.

Kevin Magnussen debuted the upgraded VF-22 package in FP1 – with Mick Schumacher, for comparison, running an identical tire plan in the session. Both cars started off with wake-up runs on the Pirelli P Zero White hard compound. A switch to the Red soft rubber produced each driver’s fastest laps – Magnussen setting a 1:20.921 (P17) with Schumacher recording a 1:21.027 (P18). A return to the previously used hard sets, this time on high-fuel, concluded the session.

FP2 saw both cars run the Yellow medium tire to start – each driver producing a baseline nine-lap stint. Quali simulation followed with a return to the soft rubber for six laps. Magnussen posted a best effort of 1:19.818 (P16) while Schumacher was directly behind his teammate producing a 1:19.985 (P17). With 15 minutes remaining both cars headed out one last time for a distance run on high-fuel utilizing the used medium rubber.

Haas F1 Team ran a total of 106 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 53 each by Magnussen and Schumacher.

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team

“It felt quite smooth really. We had no issues with it and the feeling in the car was pretty good. It was basically more or less what we expected, so I’m happy with that. There’s going to be more work to do to extract more out of it and that’s going to come in time and so far, it’s been going well. We hope to move further up the grid tomorrow and it looks like it’s going to be wet, so that’s going to be a curveball.”

 

Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47, Haas F1 Team

“It was quite tricky. It’s just a matter of getting used to this track with these new cars – it’s a lot more mechanical, a lot bumpier. We’re figuring out where the bumps are at the moment, and also trying to adapt the car set-up to what we need here. We still need to work a bit on high and low-fuel but our main focus at the moment is high. Usually in the wet our car has been quite strong so let’s hope for the best tomorrow. If we have everything in the right spot, we should be decent.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

“It wasn’t a bad session for us today. We’re just trying to understand the upgrade package on Kevin’s car and there is work to be done – but at the moment, it looks promising. We need to work a little bit more on the balance, we haven’t really figured out where to go with it. Mick had an issue with his front wing in FP2 so it didn’t give the downforce it should’ve, so we need to look into that, but all in all it was not a bad session. Tomorrow obviously looks like it’s going to be completely different circumstances because of the rain, so we’ll go away as we have a lot of data to look at, but at the moment it looks ok.”
 

Today's Data

Event: Free Practice 1 & 2 for the Hungarian Grand Prix – Friday July 29
Location: Hungaroring, Budapest
Layout: 4.381-kilometer (2.722-mile), 14-turn circuit
FP1 & FP2 Weather: Sunshine
Drivers: Kevin Magnussen & Mick Schumacher 

Free Practice 1 Rundown:

Magnussen: 17th overall (1:20.921), 24 laps completed
Schumacher: 18th overall (1:21.027), 25 laps completed
Fastest: Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari (1:18.750)

Free Practice 2 Rundown:

Magnussen: 16th overall (1:19.818), 29 laps completed
Schumacher: 17th overall (1:19.985), 28 laps completed
Fastest: Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari (1:18.445)