27/07/2012
NEWS STORY
The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend got underway in Budapest today with the first two practice sessions taking place.
Michael and Nico completed a total of 103 laps of the 4.381 km Hungaroring circuit. P1 was dry, with P2 starting dry before a rain shower over the circuit led to the use of intermediate tyres. Michael's afternoon came to an early conclusion when he aquaplaned at turn 12 and hit the barriers.
Michael Schumacher: We had two sessions with normal running, expect for my little crash into the tyres this afternoon. I just locked up and run out of road. By hitting the tyres, I lost the front wing, but other than that, nothing is damaged on the car, I believe. It was the kind of incident that happens when suddenly a shower hits the dry track. The car felt okay until then, and we will now look deep into our data to find a good way to approach qualifying and the race. The rain might undoubtedly be an opportunity but I am not totally sure about the forecast. Let's see what we can take away from here.
Nico Rosberg: This is a great track to drive, and it was really exciting out there, particularly this afternoon with the mixed conditions. At the end in some places it was dry, and in others, there were rivers of water. It was a decent day of testing for us overall. We worked a lot on different things, and this afternoon we tried to bring my car in a different working window mechanically, but there is still some work to do on that tomorrow.
Ross Brawn: We had a mixed day really. We did some lower fuel work this morning and planned to do higher fuel this afternoon, however the rain came just as we began that programme so there is still some work to do there. Michael had an unfortunate incident during P2 when the car aquaplaned and went straight off. The conditions were similar to those which we might see on Sunday so we were keen to get out and see how the car was, and we were still able to pick up quite a lot of useful information from Nico. The balance of the car isn't great yet around this technically challenging circuit and there is some work that we want to do tonight to improve the car for the weekend.
Norbert Haug: It was not a great first day for us here in Hungary, and there is room for improvement tomorrow. Michael's off in the second session due to aquaplaning was not a big deal. He lost only ten laps of track time compared to Nico and his car will be fine for tomorrow.
Check out our Friday gallery, here.