Practice One - Kubica leads for BMW Sauber 03 Aug 2007
BMW Sauber came to Hungary quietly expecting to do well, and on Bridgestone’s super-soft option tyre this morning Robert Kubica led the way ahead of the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. The Pole lapped in 1m 22.390s to pip Massa’s 1m 22.519s. Raikkonen improved to 1m 22.540s on the last lap.
Behind them, the McLarens stayed on the soft tyres, Fernando Alonso lapping in 1m 22.585s to Lewis Hamilton’s 1m 22.654s. The other runners below 1m 23s were Nick Heidfeld (1m 22.891s) in the second BMW and Williams’ Nico Rosberg (1m 22.983s).
Honda had a good morning, with Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello eighth and ninth on 1m 23.294s and 1m 23.601s respectively. Ralf Schumacher rounded out the top 10 for Toyota on 1m 23.802s.
Conditions were hot - the ambient temperature reached 29 degrees Celsius, the track temperature 42 - and the track was very slippery. Toro Rosso’s Tonio Liuzzi, Schumacher, Barrichello, Heidfeld and Williams’ Alex Wurz all had momentary off-track excursions.
Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson was 11th on 1m 24.102s, ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli (1m 24.318s), Wurz (1m 23.321s), David Coulthard (1m 23.474s) in the Red Bull, Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen (1m 23.733s) and rookie Sebastian Vettel whose final lap beat team mate Liuzzi’s. Vettel took his Toro Rosso round in 1m 24.905s to the Italian’s 1m 24.976s. In between them was Giancarlo Fisichella, with 1m 24.920s for Renault.
Takuma Sato was 19th on 1m 25.307s in the second Super Aguri, while Mark Webber was left down in 20th place on 1m 25.584s when his red Bull developed a mechanical fault passing the pits before stopping in the pit exit road.
Adrian Sutil led the Spyker challenge as usual, on 1m 26.332s, with Formula One race returnee Sakon Yamamoto 22nd on 1m 28.118s.
