Budapest: Ferrari’s Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel smashed the track record in final practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix here Saturday while title rival Lewis Hamilton remained off the pace.
The German, who leads Mercedes driver Hamilton by a single point ahead of the last race before the August break, lapped the Hungaroring circuit in one minute 17.017 seconds on supersoft tyres. The four-time World Champion’s time was 0.475s quicker than second-placed teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
Now-retired Brazilian Rubens Barrichello had set the previous track record of 1:18.436s with Ferrari in 2004.
Triple World Champion Hamilton appeared to have his work cut out at a track where he was won five times before. The Briton’s time, on the slower soft tyres, was 1.417 seconds off Vettel’s and he was only fifth fastest.
Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas was quicker, 0.897 slower than Vettel but still the quickest of Ferrari’s rivals. Dutch teenager Max Verstappen was fourth on the timesheets for Red Bull.
Brazilian Felipe Massa started the session, after feeling unwell Friday and being taken to hospital, but cut it short with continuing uncertainty about whether he would be able to take part in qualifying. Williams confirmed that the veteran had wanted to stop as he was still not feeling well. British reserve Paul di Resta was on standby, if given the official go-ahead. Later in the evening, Williams announced that Di Resta will replace the unwell Massa.
In the race to pole position, Vettel once more took the honours with teammate Raikkonen making it one-two for Ferrari. Bottas was third on the grid for Merc with mate Hamilton on fourth. It meant that Brit Hamilton will have to wait for more than two months to achieve Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 pole positions. Also on a track where overtaking is really very difficult, Hamilton’s chances of erasing the one point deficit with Vettel appears remote now.