2009 Grand Prix of Hungary, Practice Sessions 1, 2 & 3

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.009           19
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:21.408 + 0.399   23
 3.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.509 + 0.500   21
 4.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:21.655 + 0.646   20
 5.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:21.800 + 0.791   23
 6.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:21.849 + 0.840   12
 7.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:21.911 + 0.902   19
 8.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:21.935 + 0.926   19
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.936 + 0.927   16
10.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:21.971 + 0.962   21
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:22.076 + 1.067   20
12.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:22.097 + 1.088   25
13.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:22.101 + 1.092   22
14.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:22.210 + 1.201   17
15.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:22.270 + 1.261   20
16.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:22.274 + 1.265   19
17.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:22.312 + 1.303   22
18.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:22.391 + 1.382   20
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:22.684 + 1.675   23
20.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:23.231 + 2.222   16

News & Quotes:
Raikkonen remains hopeful for qualifying

Q&A with Kimi: Kimi Raikkonen’s mood seems to be on an upward swing. The car finally
seems to coming his way and the hot conditions in Budapest should suit
the F60 well. Whether it will be enough to get him on the podium come
Sunday he’s not sure, but any improvement on his recent results will be
most welcome…

Q: Kimi, at the last couple of races you haven’t been overly happy about your car but today seemed to be much better…
Kimi Raikkonen:
Yes, the car was not bad. There are little things still not so perfect
but I think we can improve that. I was very happy about how the car
handled. We’ve seen very tight times today so we have to wait and see
what I can do tomorrow – but definitely I am more happy today than the
last Friday at Nurburgring. We have to work hard for qualifying because
one tenth faster or slower can mean five or six places difference on
the grid and starting further in front on the grid is quite important
at this track.

Q: One of the very important issues here is the tyres. Do both types – the soft and super soft – work well for you?
KR:
Yes. This year the super soft have been quite tricky to use but we have
been focusing on that problem and have come up with a good solution.

Q: Today you’ve looked better than team mate Felipe Massa. Do you have the same feeling?
KR: I
don’t know what they did with his car. As I said before I felt very
comfortable today and I am sure that Felipe’s crew will work hard to
get the best out of his car.

Q: So would you count yourself
among those who will be towards the front of the grid after qualifying
given the times from today?
KR: Well, that’s the same story
every race weekend: it’s very hard to make a prediction based on the
Friday times. Tomorrow afternoon we definitely know more. But I am
pretty confident to be able to do a good lap time.

Q: We
have seen in Istanbul that the temperature can have a big influence on
the performance of the car. Do you have a clear picture here which
temperature will be the best for your car?
KR: Usually when
it is hot it is better for us as we had some issues this year getting
the tyres working. This weather conditions here should suit us.

Q: Today we’ve seen 19 cars within one second. Is this the picture that we will see all weekend?
KR:
In Budapest the times have always been very close, even in the past.
But probably we will see an even closer field than ever before.

Q:
This weekend there is a lot of talk about young drivers. When you came
into Formula One how much of a challenge was it, as you were also very
young and had little car experience?
KR: I wasn’t as young as
they are now, but I had even less experience in a car race. But the
good thing when I came in was that I had a whole winter for testing and
to get accustomed to the car and the system. But today, with no testing
in the season and limited tests over the winter period, it is very
difficult for those guys to come in as the only way they can gain
experience is by racing. And even if one has little experience, when
asked to join a Formula One team nobody will say no, as there are no
other options than the ‘learning by doing’ model.

Free Practice 2 – Hamilton Quickest
Full practice report can be read here 

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:22.079            36
 2.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:22.126  + 0.047   36
 3.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:22.154  + 0.075   47
 4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:22.369  + 0.290   29
 5.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:22.426  + 0.347   40
 6.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:22.550  + 0.471   30
 7.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:22.641  + 0.562   38
 8.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:22.663  + 0.584   28
 9.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:22.690  + 0.611   43
10.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:22.751  + 0.672   45
11.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:22.763  + 0.684   38
12.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:22.793  + 0.714   37
13.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:22.806  + 0.727   42
14.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:22.870  + 0.791   36
15.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:22.927  + 0.848   36
16.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:22.978  + 0.899   28
17.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.029  + 0.950   39
18.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:23.156  + 1.077   32
19.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:23.176  + 1.097   45
20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:23.942  + 1.863   40

News & Quotes:
Vettel says rivals closer in Hungary
Massa laments ‘very difficult’ day
Hamilton dreaming of front row start
FIA: New F1 deal ready for next week

Ferrari Team Quotes –  Kimi Raikkonen: “Today, the car wasn’t that bad. There
are still some small things that we can work on to make it quicker, but
overall, I am reasonably happy. This year, the supersoft tyre has
always been very difficult to manage, but here it seems the situation
is rather more straightforward. We’ll see what we can manage tomorrow,
but this is definitely a better Friday than those in the recent past.
Seeing how close the times are, we will have to try and do the maximum
to get a good grid position. It seems to me that the performance level
of the various cars at this track is much closer one to the other.”

Chris Dyer: “A very busy Friday for the team, both
because we worked in a slightly different way to usual and because we
had to solve a few problems on the rear suspension, linked to some off
track excursions. Furthermore, we did the usual job of comparing the
two types of tyre brought here by Bridgestone and it’s clear we are
struggling a bit, as indeed we usually do, in terms of doing a time on
the first flying lap, especially on the harder tyre. From what we could
see in today’s three hours of practice, everyone is very evenly matched
and we will have to do our utmost to get a good qualifying result,
which here more than at some other tracks, is very important in terms
of the outcome of the race.”

Free Practice 1 – Kovalainen Leads First Session
Full practice report can be read here 

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:22.278            21
 2.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:22.337  + 0.059   27
 3.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:22.554  + 0.276   20
 4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:22.615  + 0.337   21
 5.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:22.619  + 0.341   25
 6.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:22.705  + 0.427   17
 7.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:22.796  + 0.518   23
 8.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:22.855  + 0.577   25
 9.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:23.001  + 0.723   28
10.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:23.130  + 0.852   25
11.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:23.146  + 0.868   24
12.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:23.154  + 0.876   23
13.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:23.209  + 0.931   24
14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:23.234  + 0.956   30
15.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:23.283  + 1.005   25
16.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.484  + 1.206   20
17.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:23.678  + 1.400   22
18.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.845  + 1.567   18
19.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:23.998  + 1.720   37
20.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.228  + 1.950   42

News & Quotes:
Raikkonen: Hungary is big opportunity
Thursday’s press conference
Hamilton cautious on victory talk

Yesterday after the autograph signing session at the circuit, Kimi arrived to the local Tag Heuer store for his PR duties: