Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi set the pace in the Hungaroring in-season Formula 1 test on Day 1 after his quick time on the hypersoft compound.
Giovinazzi topped the morning session as well with a 1m19.648s from McLaren’s Lando Norris and stayed in front after his record-breaking (unofficial) lap of 1m15.648s – incidentally an exact four seconds on the hypersoft compound.
The Ferrari driver was the only one to complete a flying lap from his total of 96 on the pink-coloured tyre. Norris was displaced from the second place by Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson after his time of 1m18.155s (hypersoft) in the afternoon session.
The Swede was fourth in the morning run and completed a total of 95 laps in all. Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley soaked in the most number of laps at 126 in a crucial run for Honda as it pushes to improve reliability and also performance.
The Kiwi was fifth in the morning but improved to a 1m19.251s (ultrasoft) lap in the afternoon to gain two places to third. Norris ended up fourth with a 1m19.294s (ultrasoft) lap and was one of the two drivers to try the intermediate tyres after a rain shower towards the end stages.
The McLaren reserve completed 107 laps in all. His F2 rival, Mercedes’ George Russell was fifth with a 1m18.781s (supersoft) lap, completing only 49 laps – much less by Mercedes standards. Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo ended up sixth.
The Australian was the other driver on the intermediates. He also had a installation lap on the 2019 spec front wing along with the Force India and Williams. He completed 125 laps in all with a best time of 1m19.854s (ultrasoft).
Force India’s Nicholas Latifi finished seventh with 103 laps after his 1m19.994s (soft) lap while Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was eighth with a 1m20.826s (medium) lap, completing 63 laps. Williams’ Oliver Rowland was the last among the teams testing in ninth.
The British driver clocked a 1m20.970s (soft) lap time, completing 65 laps in all. F2 driver Sean Gelael was also in action in the Toro Rosso car, testing the 2019 tyres for Pirelli but his day was cut short due to an incident. He did 109 laps with a best time of 1m21.451s.
