2016 F1 Round 11 Hungarian Grand Prix FP1 – Hamilton leads Mercedes one-two

The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend opened with practice in Budapest on the newly resurfaced Hungaroring. The first session began on a damp track that gradually dried, leaving the drivers to find speed as grip levels changed.

Archive photograph of the grid at the Hungaroring in Budapest during the 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Hamilton led with a 1:21.347, while Rosberg was second, 0.237 seconds behind. Mercedes set the pace on the first dry-track runs.

Vettel was third and Räikkönen fourth, but both Ferraris were more than 1.6 seconds off the fastest time. Red Bull’s Ricciardo and Verstappen finished fifth and sixth.

Alonso and Button were seventh and eighth, putting both McLarens in the top ten. Grosjean was ninth and Pérez tenth. Hülkenberg followed in eleventh, outside the top ten.

The resurfaced track kept the drivers exploring the available grip. Hamilton and Verstappen ran wide at Turn 4, Alonso and Hülkenberg went off at Turn 5, and Button also spun.

The Red Bull drivers finished fifth and sixth without using the faster supersoft tyres that Mercedes and Ferrari ran during the session. Williams drivers Massa and Bottas were twelfth and thirteenth.

Two drivers made substitute appearances in FP1. Leclerc replaced Gutiérrez at Haas and finished sixteenth, while Ocon took Magnussen’s Renault and was eighteenth. Neither regular driver participated in the session.

On soft tyres, Rosberg’s 1:22.801 was faster than Hamilton’s 1:23.078. After switching to supersofts, Hamilton set the session’s best time of 1:21.347. Their positions changed with the tyre choices, and Hamilton ultimately finished 0.237 seconds ahead.