Nico Rosberg had a positive opening day of the Hungarian Grand Prix after finishing the second Free Practice session at the Hungaroring on top of the time sheets.
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS driver finished the first session only two tenths of a second behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton, completing a total of 34 laps around the Hungaroring, setting a fastest lap time of 1:21.584 on the Supersoft compound. In Free Practice 2, the German was able to improve on his morning session performance and set a fastest lap time of 1:20.435, completing another 45 laps for the team.
This time was more than enough to see him top the time sheets, with Hamilton ending his session early after a crash at Turn eleven. Before the incident, Hamilton was at the top with a time only 0.001 seconds ahead of Rosberg. When the session restarted, Rosberg posted a flying lap of 1:20.435, 1.525 seconds ahead of Hamilton’s time.
Even with this positive performance in the practice sessions, Rosberg believes it doesn’t necessarily mean Mercedes will perform strong again tomorrow, although all signs are so far so good for the team.
“An impressive day for us, performance-wise,” said Rosberg. “Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be in quite such a strong position tomorrow – but for now it’s very positive.
“I’m feeling great out there and the car is very quick, so a good start to the weekend overall. We got everything done in terms of qualifying and race sim work and it’s all looking very good. I think the new asphalt suits us, so I’m optimistic.
“It’s a great feeling to start the day like that with the contract being sorted. That was always going to be a positive boost. Now I’m really excited for the rest of the weekend in my awesome Silver Arrow.”
