Posted on 1st August 2017
This afternoon we saw Ferrari Academy driver and Formula 2 Championship leader Charles Leclerc lead the way during the first day of the second in-season test at the Hungaroring ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and Valtteri Bottas who accumulated the most laps by any driver today.
In the morning, Vandoorne set the pace and was quickest but he had to stop early with a mechanical problem and spent most of the afternoon in the garage. He got out in the latter part of the session, with McLaren hoping to gather data on a series of new parts.
However in the closing minutes of the session, Charles Leclerc was able to surpass Vandoorne's laptime and was fastest with a lap time of 1.17.746. Leclerc finished ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne in second place who was 0.088 seconds behind him. Vandoorne finished ahead of Valtteri Bottas in third place (who was undertaking tyre testing for Pirelli) who was 0.986 seconds behind Leclerc.
GP3 racer George Russell completed his first full F1 test, clocked up more than 100 laps and ended the session in fourth place ahead of Lance Stroll in fifth place who was filling in for a poorly Felipe Massa. Nikita Mazepin finished the session in sixth place ahead of Nicholas Latifi in seventh place and Sean Gelael in eighth place.
Gelael started the morning testing for the Toro Rosso team and had his session with the team cut short due to a problem on the car. But he was able to recover in the afternoon with longer runs on the track with Renault.
Mercedes DTM frontrunner Lucas Auer ended the test session in ninth place after ending the day with the Force India team. Haas' junior driver Santino Ferrucci ended the day in tenth place ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in eleventh place ahead of Gustav Malja in twelfth place who drove for Sauber.
Day One Timesheet
1) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:17.746, 98 laps
2) Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda, 1:17.834, 72 laps
3) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 1:18.732, 155 laps
4) George Russell, Mercedes, 1:19.231, 119 laps
5) Lance Stroll, Williams, 1:19.866, 138 laps
6) Nikita Mazepin, Force India, 1:19.910, 52 laps
7) Nicholas Latifi, Renault, 1:20.302, 54 laps
8) Sean Gelael, Toro Rosso/Renault, 1:20.341, 101 laps
9) Lucas Auer, Force India, 1:20.563, 54 laps
10) Santino Ferrucci, Haas, 1.21.185, 102 laps
11) Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1.21.228, 58 laps
12) Gustav Malja, Sauber, 1.21.503, 108 laps
Keep your eyes peeled at Driving For Pleasure as we will be covering the final day of the second in-season F1 test at the Hungaroring with our report tomorrow alongside the latest F1 news.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
