Valtteri Bottas went quickest in the second practice session for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, shading team-mate Lewis Hamilton by two hundredths of a second as championship leader Max Verstappen finished three tenths of a second off the pace after struggling with handling issues.
After an opening period in which Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc held way on medium tyres, Bottas moved to the front on the same compound with a lap of 1:18.376. Hamilton then moved into P2 three tenths of a second. Verstappen then emerged for his first run of the afternoon and he immediately split the Mercedes, with team-mate Sergio Pérez slotting into fourth place.
Hamilton then found a solid gain ands rose to the top of the order with a lap of 1:18.140 that remained the quickest lap before the field began to switch to soft tyres for their qualifying simulations.
Bottas bolted on a set of the red-banded tyres close to the half hour mark and he jumped to a time of 1:17.012 that remained the benchmark for the rest of the session.
Hamilton almost bested his team-mate but though the seven-time champion was quicker in the final sector good work early on from Bottas gave him a slim edge on the timesheet.
Verstappen, meanwhile, was busy trying to dial out persistent understeer but try as he might the championship leader couldn’t find a sweet spot with his RB16B and he had to settle for third place.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon have the Anglo-French squad hope of a good weekend with a lap of 1:17.759 that was good enough for fourth place ahead of Pérez who finished with a best time of 1:17.824.
Pierre Gasly was sixth for AlphaTauri ahead of Fernando Alonso in the second Alpine while Sebastian Vettel put his Aston Martin in eighth place ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll.
2021 FIA Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:17.012 29 204.794
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:17.039 0.027 27 204.722
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1:17.310 0.298 24 204.004
4 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:17.759 0.747 29 202.826
5 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda 1:17.824 0.812 23 202.657
6 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri/Honda 1:18.113 1.101 31 201.907
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine/Renault 1:18.169 1.157 27 201.762
8 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:18.228 1.216 31 201.610
9 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:18.313 1.301 25 201.391
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:18.320 1.308 30 201.373
11 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:18.370 1.358 30 201.245
12 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:18.441 1.429 32 201.063
13 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren/Mercedes 1:18.737 1.725 26 200.307
14 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:19.277 2.265 21 198.942
15 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 1:19.292 2.280 29 198.905
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams/Mercedes 1:19.479 2.467 30 198.437
17 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri/Honda 1:19.671 2.659 3 197.959
18 Mick Schumacher Haas/Ferrari 1:19.817 2.805 29 197.597
19 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 1:20.186 3.174 28 196.687
20 Nikita Mazepin Haas/Ferrari 1:21.881 4.869 28 192.616
