Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton ‘very happy’ with practice in Budapest

Lewis Hamilton topped both free practice sessions yesterday ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“It’s been a really positive day. I’m very, very happy,” said the McLaren driver. “We made some good changes to the car to get it dialled in, and we’re on the right path, but we’ve still got some work to do. The Red Bull looks very quick, so does the Lotus, and obviously the Ferrari as well. So we’re by no means feeling comfortable.”

The Red Bull pair were less sure of their pace at the Hungaroring, though, with the enforced changes to the car’s engine map looking to have affected their performance.

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Mark Webber was 13th in the morning and 14th in the afternoon, while Sebastian Vettel went 15th and eighth.

“There’s still a lot of room for improvement and things that we need to do a bit better for the weekend – then we can see where we are,” said Vettel. “We got a decent run on the primes which was important and we learned things from that, but it looks tight.”

The morning’s session was incident-free, but in the afternoon rain fell halfway through second practice and many drivers took the opportunity to switch to intermediate tyres for some wet weather running. Forecasts indicate a 50 per cent chance of a wet race tomorrow.

Scotland’s Paul di Resta was seventh fastest, with Lotus’s Romain Grosjean ninth ahead of the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

Schumacher and Grosjean were the only drivers to crash in Free Practice 2. An hour into the 90-minute session, and with a river of water on the straight leading to Turn 12, Schumacher locked-up under braking and, unable to turn, understeered straight into the tyre barriers.

The car went in nose first, breaking the front wing. Initial checks show it suffered relatively minimal damage to the front end. “I just ran out of road. I locked up and couldn’t stop the car,” said Schumacher, who finished sixth fastest in the first session. “I don’t think it was aquaplaning, it was just one of these usual things.”

Previously known as ‘The Rainmeister’, this was the seven-times world champion’s second wet weather practice crash in a week, having made a costly mistake at Hockenheim. Grosjean damaged his front wing and struggled for pace, but team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was runner-up in Free Practice 2, just 0.185secs behind Hamilton.