After the dry first practice session this morning at the Hungaroring, it was time to swap the slick tyres for wets as the two and and a half hour break brought nothing but a deluge of rain. The session started as normal after the safety car deemed it safe to do so, and unsurprisingly it was Scuderia AlphaTauri‘s Pierre Gasly that ventured out on to the sodden track after missing the entirety of the first session this morning due to a technical issue.
And it wasn’t until 20 minutes had passed until we got some representative running, with Sergio Pérez lapping the track alone for BWT Racing Point. The Mexican is under the spotlight at the moment in the paddock, with rumours swirling around of a shuffle to the driver lineup at the Silverstone based squad for when Aston Martin take over the team for 2021. His team mate Lance Stroll soon followed as the team were likely looking for some wet wether running in case the forecasted rain appears on Sunday.
It was very quiet for the middle 30 minutes of the session and then Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon come out on the intermediate tyres for the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team, but it appeared to be too wet. Charles Leclerc was the first to emerge for Scuderia Ferrari on the full wet tyre closely followed by his team mate Sebastian Vettel, with the team from Maranello appearing to make a small gain this weekend based on Friday’s running so far.
With less than half an hour to go, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team of Valtteri Bottas made his intentions clear and was immediately quick in the wet conditions to set a time within a couple of tenths of Vettel’s benchmark time at the first time of asking, outlining the instant strength of the Mercedes.
But with the track conditions not improving and the chequered flag coming out to signal the end of the session, it was Sebastian Vettel that set the fastest time ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz Jr. as only 12 cars set a lap time. Lewis Hamilton only did an installation lap in the latter half of the session, not feeling the need to risk the machinery ahead of predicted drier conditions tomorrow.
Free Practice 2 Classification
| Pos. | # | Driver | Nat. | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | GER | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:40.464 | 12 | |
| 2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1:40.736 | 0.272s | 5 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | ESP | McLaren F1 Team | 1:41.784 | +1.320s | 6 |
| 4 | 18 | Lance Stroll | CAN | BWT Racing Point Formula One Team | 1:42.380 | +1.916s | 6 |
| 5 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | MEX | BWT Racing Point Formula One Team | 1:42.470 | +2.006s | 5 |
| 6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1:42.588 | +2.124s | 7 |
| 7 | 33 | Max Verstappen | NED | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 1:42.820 | +2.356s | 4 |
| 8 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | FRA | Haas F1 Team | 1:43.335 | +2.871s | 6 |
| 9 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | FIN | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:43.471 | +3.007s | 16 |
| 10 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:43.725 | +3.261s | 10 |
| 11 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | ITA | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:44.411 | +3.947s | 9 |
| 12 | 4 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren F1 Team | 1:46.000 | +5.536s | 5 |
| 13 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | RUS | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1:47.422 | +6.958s | 7 |
| 14 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Renault DP World F1 Team | 1 | ||
| 15 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | Renault DP World F1 Team | 1 | ||
| 16 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1 | ||
| 17 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Williams Racing | 2 | ||
| 18 | 63 | George Russell | GBR | Williams Racing | 2 | ||
| 19 | 23 | Alexander Albon | THA | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 3 | ||
| 20 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | DEN | Haas F1 Team | 1 |
