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After three
hours of free practice, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa
ended up fifth and sixth fastest around the tight and
twisty Hungaroring, while earlier, the Brazilian was
quickest at the end of the morning session with the Finn
second. Despite a few thunderstorms over the city of
Budapest last night, the atmosphere at the track is
still humid and very hot.
Winner of the last two grands prix, Lewis Hamilton was
quickest in his McLaren-Mercedes ahead of the man who
finished second to him in Germany a fortnight ago,
Nelson Piquet in the Renault. Third was the other
McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen who yesterday was confirmed
as staying with the team for 2009. Fernando Alonso was
fourth in the second Renault.
Friday at the Hungaroring always follows the same
pattern, with no teams keen to do too much running in
the early stages of the session as this infrequently
used circuit, with a sandy soil surrounding it, tends to
be very dirty and lacking in grip. In practical terms,
this plays havoc with the tyres, causing "graining" when
rubber builds up on the tread surface, reducing their
efficiency after the first lap and then taking a while
to become clean again. The lack of grip provided by the
track surface also makes it very difficult to assess how
tyres will work over a longer race stint, while
suspension and aero setting changes made as a reaction
to these conditions can prove to be less than perfect
come Saturday morning when more rubber, some of it from
all the other categories racing here, can completely
change the track characteristics.
Nevertheless, the engineers still need to gather as much
data as possible, especially as the Scuderia is running
some new components here, so between them Kimi and
Felipe completed a total of 112 laps, 57 for the Finn
and two less for the Brazilian.
Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen completed around five
hundred kilometres over the three hours of free practice
for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The two Scuderia Ferrari
Marlboro drivers got through their entire day's
programme, which centred on finding the best set-up on
the F2008 and on a comparison of various aerodynamic
options as well as the two types of Bridgestone tyre.
There were no technical problems. "We come here off the
back of two rather difficult races and our target here
has to be to extract the full potential of our package
and then try to secure the best possible result,"
commented Team Principal of the Gestione Sportiva,
Stefano Domenicali. "Friday's results always have to be
looked at with caution, especially at a track like the
Hungaroring, which is always very dirty on the first
day. Clearly we are up against some very strong
opposition on a track where, historically, we have
usually struggled a bit, but I am confident we can have
a good race."
Felipe Massa: "It's hard to say exactly where we
are compared to the opposition, but clearly they are
very quick. I did not feel too comfortable on the
softest tyre while on the harder one, which I used
first, the situation was much better. As usual on the
first day at the Hungaroring, it is difficult to
understand how the tyres are behaving because you always
get a lot of graining, while the situation changes bit
by bit as more rubber goes down on the track surface. We
know in which direction we have to work and we will do
all we can to bring home a good result. It will be
tough, but I am confident all the same."
Kimi Raikkonen: "We worked on various set-up
options for the car. I also tried the new engine cover,
but it is hard to assess it in any detail. The situation
is not too bad, the car handles better, but our main
rivals seem to be still a little bit quicker than us,
even if there is the usual question mark over any
difference in the fuel loads. There is still room for
improvement and we will concentrate all our efforts on
this in preparing for qualifying and the race."
Luca Baldisserri: "Friday's results are always
difficult to evaluate as one doesn't know what fuel
loads the other teams are running and this is even more
the case here in Budapest where the tyres show signs of
a lot of graining on the first day. In fact, only the
performance over the first lap can be considered a valid
indication, before waiting several laps before the tyres
clean up again and one can return to showing an
acceptable pace. We got through all our planned
programme and the new parts we have brought here seem to
be working in the right direction. Now we have to
analyse the date to be as well prepared as possible for
the rest of the weekend."
Free
practice - First session
F. Massa: 1st 1.20.981 19 laps chassis 269
K. Raikkonen: 2nd 1.21.345 21 laps chassis 270
Weather: air 29 °C, track 31 °C, hazy sky.
Free Practice - Second session
K. Raikkonen: 5th 1.21.009 36 laps chassis 270
F. Massa: 6th 1.21.010 36 laps chassis 269
Weather: air 31 °C, track 33 °C, cloudy, then sunny.
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