Another Calm Practice from Brawn GP

Friday was never going to show too much as the relatively unused track needed to be cleaned and ‘driven in.’ Unfortunately, rain on Friday night meant that the track this morning was less than perfect and so a lot of the cleaning work would probably need to be done again.

The temperature had also significantly dropped overnight which in theory was a concern for the Brawn team. However, the conditions looked to improve significantly, it wasn’t too cold for the BGP001’s tyres and the very dark Hungarian track surface actually held in a lot of the heat from yesterday.

Fisichella was the first of the drivers to venture out on a installation lap and he was quickly followed by the rest of his competitors. After about five minutes, both Brawn boys had also gone out and returned to the pits.

Then followed a rather dull evaluation period which thankfully only lasted a few minutes. Sure enough, 12 minutes in, Trulli re-started the session and put in a time of 1:30:122.

The Italian was quickly toppled by his team mate, and then the King of Friday (Rosberg). The king was overthrown temporarily by Alonso, before taking back his pole position with a 1:24:473.

20 minutes in and there were 11 times on the board (led by Buemi with a 1:23:633). Rubens’s first time of 1:26:467 put him P13 of 14. Jenson’s 1:28:552 stuck him in last place.

However on their second runs, Rubens got up to P8 and Jenson, P9. Things got better the third time around when Rubens went up to P4 and Jenson, P6. So a pretty encouraging start for Brawn despite the dodgy weather. Rubens stayed in P4, before being overtaken by his team mate.

30 minutes in, Hamilton was first (1:22:280) and Rubens had dropped to P6, Jenson P5. With 23 minutes left, the cars started to exit the pits on the super soft tyre compound.

It is worth noting at this stage that the Red Bulls seemed to be really struggling and yet again Webber was the man who was outpacing his team mate (and seemed to be complaining less!).

When the Brawns got back out on track, Rubens got up to P4 with a 1:22:555 and Jenson, P5 with a 1:22:682. Unfortunately, Jens hit the curb on turn 3 and needed to come back to the pits for checks (but all was OK).

The session was yellow flagged when Sutil came off after hitting dirty track into turn 9, which put a stop to competitive times for a short while.

This meant that with 15 minutes left, Hamilton was still on top, a fantastic Alonso was second (really driving well!), Jens was P7, and Rubens P5.

It is also worth mentioning that young Alguersuari was driving exceptionally well to be in P4!

Having dropped a bit, Rubens re-took P6 and then P3 with a 1:22:101, whilst Jenson dropped down the grid as he struggled to find clear track.

The session finished with Hamilton on top, Rubens P12 and Jenson P17. However, that is far from bad news as towards the end the teams that were worried about getting into Q3 began to run very light fuel loads (the Brawns did not).

Better still, the track was definitely warming up. Qualifying will be crucial, but I think the Brawns have the best chance in a little while of locking out the front row. The scary question is where will those pesky McLarens qualify?

FORMULA 1 ING MAGYAR NAGYDIJ 2009

Pos No Driver Team Time/Retired Gap Laps

1 1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.009 19

2 6 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:21.408 0.399 23

3 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:21.509 0.500 21

4 2 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.655 0.646 20

5 12 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:21.800 0.791 23

6 10 Timo Glock Toyota 1:21.849 0.840 12

7 3 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:21.911 0.902 19

8 17 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:21.935 0.926 19

9 14 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:21.936 0.927 16

10 15 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:21.971 0.962 21

11 5 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 1:22.076 1.067 20

12 9 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:22.097 1.088 25

13 23 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 1:22.101 1.092 22

14 8 Nelsinho Piquet Renault 1:22.210 1.201 17

15 4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:22.270 1.261 20

16 7 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:22.274 1.265 19

17 22 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 1:22.312 1.303 22

18 11 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:22.391 1.382 20

19 21 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Mercedes 1:22.684 1.675 23

20 20 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:23.231 2.222 16