Ferrari emerge as Red Bull’s closest rival but new tyre rule clouds the picture · RaceFans

When the so-called ‘Different Tyre Allocation’ format was first introduced nicely over a yr in the past, it was emphasised repeatedly that environmental sustainability was the driving pressure behind it – not any try and shake up ‘the present’.

And but, whereas there’s no motive to doubt this was the intention, evidently followers have the ATA to thank for leaving them extra at midnight about how the ten groups are positioned on the finish of the primary day of operating than they’re for a typical race weekend.

Normally, every driver has the luxurious of 13 units of slick tyres out there – eight of the designated gentle compound, three of the mediums and simply two of the toughest compound for that weekend. However in Hungary, they solely have half the standard variety of softs with additional units of the 2 more durable tyres to make up for it.

This weekend’s take a look at of the ATA was barely compromised by a sudden and heavy rain bathe simply minutes into the opening session of the day. Whereas some drivers did profit from getting laps in on intermediate tyres close to the top of the session, first apply was, in the end, largely meaningless. Aside from Sergio Perez, who threw his Purple Bull off the highway and into the limitations on his first flying lap of the day, giving his mechanics an issue to unravel earlier than the second session and heaping extra stress on himself within the course of.

Subsequently, the second hour of apply was the one consultant operating groups had all day – and even that didn’t supply a picture that was really reflective of the sector’s standing.

For a begin, many huge names had been nicely exterior the highest ten on the chequered flag. Particularly the 2 Purple Bulls drivers – Max Verstappen and Perez – and the 2 Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Of that formidable quartet, Verstappen solely used softs and the Mercedes drivers confined their operating to the medium compound.

Verstappen and Hamilton were quick to offer negative feedback about the ATA, with each champions bemoaning the restricted operating they’d completed in an effort to save lots of their tyres. However whereas Hamilton prompt that the brand new format meant followers missed out on having fun with the identical quantity of operating they in any other case would have seen, the numbers don’t fairly appear to again that up. In 2022, the sector mixed for 557 whole laps in Friday’s second apply session. This time, they logged a complete of 531 laps – just below 5% much less.

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However as McLaren’s Lando Norris identified, groups had been seemingly making up for the dearth of dry operating from the opening session within the second hour of the day. “I feel we had been fortunate it rained,” Norris mentioned. “In any other case just about nobody would have completed something in P1.”

On the finish of that hour, Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on the highest of the instances, simply as they’d been on Friday on the Hungaroring a yr in the past. However Leclerc was solely a matter of milliseconds faster than Norris’s McLaren after the pair each set their greatest laps of the day on the gentle compound, with Leclerc admitting he anticipated Purple Bull to be the “strongest workforce” heading into Saturday.

“It’s very tough to learn into at the moment’s free apply,” Leclerc mentioned. “I feel it’s one thing we anticipated, being the primary weekend on this format with this allocation. Everyone’s attempting various things, but it surely’s good, as a result of I feel we’ll go into qualifying not likely realizing the place we’re.”

After McLaren’s main upgrades package deal thrust them into the struggle for the win at Silverstone, the workforce’s drivers had been cautious about their prospects round a low-downforce circuit just like the Hungaroring. However regardless of ending the day down in nineteenth after struggling minor ground injury when operating large at flip 11, Oscar Piastri was left in an optimistic temper by how McLaren had carried out in second apply.

“We regarded fairly good,” Piastri mentioned. “Our tempo regarded promising and I feel the runs and the laps I truly did appeared very comparable. So I feel we’re in a very good place.”

However whereas McLaren had been feeling constructive, Hamilton was something however. The Mercedes pair solely used a single set of mediums in the course of the day and Hamilton ended the second session down in sixteenth place, whereas workforce mate George Russell ranked on the very backside.

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Hamilton claimed his W14 “wasn’t feeling good in any respect,” via the session and that his afternoon put him in thoughts of the irritating weekends Mercedes endured all through 2022, the place they’d typically be down the order on Fridays solely to be operating within the prime 5 on race days. Nonetheless Hamilton’s feedback echo these from the final Friday at Silverstone – a race weekend that noticed him in the end race to the ultimate podium place in third.

Even with the caveat that most of the normal front-runners had been being conservative with their tyres, the sector was exceptionally shut. Simply over eight tenths of a second lined the quickest instances of the quickest 15 drivers within the second session, with the likes of Yuki Tsunoda within the AlphaTauri going faster than all of his workforce’s rivals in direction of the rear of the championship. Norris expects that stage of parity to hold via into Saturday, which can solely flip up the stress even greater on drivers throughout qualifying.

“If we make one mistake, if a lap will get deleted, it may very simply go from trying good to trying extraordinarily unhealthy on a monitor which isn’t straightforward to overhaul on,” Norris defined. “So tomorrow goes to be all about not making errors, placing laps collectively, not getting caught out or getting site visitors and issues like that.”

With so most of the main gamers but to indicate their arms on the subject of their final tempo, it’s much more tough than regular to foretell how qualifying might play out. For Perez, in search of his first Q3 look because the Miami Grand Prix again in early Could, it will likely be a nervous afternoon the place any error will seemingly be punished – along with his shunt in first apply solely including extra stress onto him.

However whereas there’s little motive to suspect that Verstappen won’t be the motive force to beat within the battle for pole place, Ferrari will probably be hoping that destiny will once more choose them to be Purple Bull’s closest rivals on the grid because the honour of being the closest adversaries to the world champions continues to alter with each spherical. All Leclerc and workforce mate Carlos Sainz Jnr can do is hope issues fall their method.

“I feel the primary two rows is the place we goal to be as a workforce,” mentioned Sainz. “However on the similar time, with McLaren there, with Aston and Mercedes – and clearly Purple Bull usually occupying the entrance row – it’s going to be a troublesome ask. However I feel if we put all the things collectively, we ought to be succesful.”

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Groups’ progress vs 2022

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