30/07/2017
NEWS STORY
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel led home a Ferrari one-two at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Pirelli as title sponsor, with nearly all the drivers adopting a one-stop supersoft-soft strategy.
Track temperatures were again in excess of 50 degrees centigrade, but tyre wear and degradation was contained in the first stint and further reduced by a four-lap safety car period shortly after the start, helping push competitors towards a one-stop strategy.
All the drivers started on the supersoft tyre, just under a second faster than the soft, with the exception of Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat and Williams reserve driver Paul Di Resta, who were the only ones to select the soft on the grid. The fastest lap, set by McLaren's Fernando Alonso, was nearly three seconds faster than last year.
The Formula 1 teams will now remain in Budapest for the second in-season test of the year, during which they will run young drivers as well. Within this test, Mercedes will dedicate one day to a blind test of Pirelli's 2018 tyre development programme.
Mario Isola: "A great performance from Ferrari with perfect tyre management in the hot conditions from all the frontrunners. In the end, because of the early safety car and also the difficulty of overtaking, nearly all the drivers opted for one stop. Before everyone heads off for the summer break, we now have the second in-season test of the year, including one day of dedicated 2018 tyre testing with Mercedes on Tuesday."
Truthometer
As we expected, most drivers opted for a one-stop strategy to avoid traffic, rather than risking the theoretically quicker two-stopper for only a small gain. Vettel made his stop from supersoft to soft on lap 32, while the Saubers were the only cars to stop twice.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Hungary, here.