Hamilton bosses practice in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton was the stand out driver on Friday as he re-emphasised his love for the Hungaroring by topping both practice sessions.

The Mercedes driver, who has won four times at this track, looked comfortably quicker than his team-mate Nico Rosberg, who finished over 0.7s behind in practice two.

Hamilton set his best time, a 1:23.949s, on the soft tyre and showed good, consistent pace on long runs.

Red Bull, who are expected to challenge for a podium this weekend, had a mixed start as Danil Kvyat finished behind Hamilton in FP2, but his team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, suffered an engine failure.

Force India didn’t compete at all in the second session after Sergio Pérez had a major crash in FP1. The Mexican’s suspension failed, which flipped the car over in a mega incident.

He walked away unscathed, but the team didn’t want to send either of their drivers out until the problem had been solved.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel also endured a tough day as he twice spun in the second session, while Kimi Raikkonen looked noticeably confident.

He finished third in FP1, 0.6s faster than Vettel, while he finished behind Rosberg in fifth in FP2.

There was some encouragement for Fernando Alonso, whose McLaren was eighth fastest in the afternoon. The Spaniard expects the team to turn around their fortunes after the summer break.

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