Fernando Alonso set the 12th fastest time in both the morning and the afternoon practice sessions today at the Hungaroring in Budapest. Stoffel Vandoorne, in a different chassis to the one he raced in at Silverstone and Hockenheim, spent much of the morning session working with his engineers to dial-in the car to the demands of the circuit, and finished in 16th position. The afternoon was similarly productive, although a spin at Turn Four in the final stages of the session interrupted his pre-qualifying simulation, which meant he didn’t set a fully representative time before the chequer and was classified in 19th.
The two sessions went smoothly for both drivers, who completed a productive day of testing, conducting a number of aero and component tests among preparations for the weekend ahead.
Fernando Alonso
“It’s been a positive Friday for us, in terms of the feeling in the car. We did a lot of tests and collected good data, with the morning session focusing more on aero tests and gathering basic information, and the afternoon session about trying out both compounds of tyres.”
“It was quite warm today, with the asphalt reaching as much as 61 degrees Celsius in FP2 I think, which is quite a record! So, let’s see tomorrow what we can find.”
“The set-up and balance were not ideal today, as we struggled a little bit with understeer. There is a lot of performance to unlock in the car if we find the right balance. We need to chase the track temperature and track conditions as this is a circuit that always keeps improving with more rubber being laid down by different series running. Tomorrow we’ll have a different track and we need to anticipate that.”
Friday ✅. The focus goes to qualy now. #mclaren #f1 #14 #budapest en F1 Grand Prix, Hungaroring, Budapest https://t.co/qotqznIfEn
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) July 27, 2018
Stoffel Vandoorne
“I’m happy with how this Friday went. I had a normal feeling in the car, and we could go back working on the set-up of the car again and not just trying to solve problems all the time.”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t set any lap-times on the Ultrasoft tyres because I made a mistake and spun off the track. But, our long-run pace looked strong and we’re getting the balance much more together.”
“There were significant changes from FP1 to FP2 and we gathered a lot of valuable info to put the car in good shape for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to having a good final practice session and then we can prepare as best we can for qualifying.”
“The target for us is to be as close as possible to the top-ten as I don’t know if actually being in Q3 is a good thing, having to start on the Ultrasoft tyres. All-in-all, it was nice to just have a normal Friday.”
