Hungarian GP: Hamilton quickest as Mercedes dominates FP1

The Briton posted a best time of 1:21.347 to finish 0.237s ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton's time was nearly seven tenths quicker than last year's pole position time, as the new tarmac produced much faster laptimes right from the start.

Sebastian Vettel was third for Ferrari, but over 1.6 seconds off Hamilton's pace.

Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth ahead of the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo who, unlike his rivals, did not run with the supersoft tyres and restricted his running to the soft rubber.

Max Verstappen was sixth, the Dutchman also using the softs only.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button wound up seventh and eighth, with Romain Grosjean (Haas) and Sergio Perez (Force India) completing the top 10.

Both Manor's Pascal Wehrlein and Renault's Jolyon Palmer spent a long time in the garage with car problems, completing just nine and six laps respectively and finishing at the bottom of the times.

The session started on a damp track after rain hit the circuit early in the morning, meaning all drivers completed their installations laps with intermediate tyres.

The conditions meant a very slow start to the running, with no drivers completing a timed lap for over 20 minutes.

Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to venture out on slicks and register a time, over 23 minutes into the session.

The Finn and McLaren's Alonso exchanged fastest laps for a few minutes as more drivers started to complete full laps as the track continued to dry up.

Raikkonen went quickest before the half-hour mark with the supersofts, before being relegated to second by Hamilton just seconds later.

The new tarmac proved the track was much faster right away, the Briton's first timed lap just a second off last year's best in FP1.

Rosberg confirmed that just two minutes later, the German posting a 1:24.088, a time over a second quicker than the 2015 best in the opening session.

The championship leader stayed on track and lowered the benchmark to a 1:22.811, eight tenths shy of last year's pole position time.

Rosberg went for a supersoft run with 40 minutes left, improving to a 1:21.584, over half a second quicker than the 2015 pole lap, before Hamilton bettered it by over two tenths.

Meanwhile, Alonso lost control of his McLaren at the final corner and spun without further consequences.

Just a few minutes later it was Vettel who spun his Ferrari, the German losing the rear end of his car under braking for Turn 12.

Charles Leclerc was the third man to spin, the Monegasque going off at Turn 6. Fortunately for him, the Haas driver managed to drive out of the gravel.

Alonso went off at Turn 5 moments later, before teammate Jenson Button became the fourth man to spin, this time at Turn 8, with 12 minutes to go.

Free practice 1 results

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	34	1'21.347
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	34	1'21.584	0.237	0.237
3	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	22	1'22.991	1.644	1.407
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	19	1'23.082	1.735	0.091
5	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	28	1'23.174	1.827	0.092
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	27	1'23.457	2.110	0.283
7	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	28	1'23.935	2.588	0.478
8	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	18	1'23.961	2.614	0.026
9	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	22	1'24.013	2.666	0.052
10	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	29	1'24.073	2.726	0.060
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	29	1'24.120	2.773	0.047
12	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	27	1'24.154	2.807	0.034
13	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	33	1'24.370	3.023	0.216
14	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	27	1'24.579	3.232	0.209
15	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	19	1'24.981	3.634	0.402
16	Charles Leclerc	Haas	Ferrari	22	1'25.181	3.834	0.200
17	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	18	1'25.256	3.909	0.075
18	Esteban Ocon	Renault	Renault	28	1'25.260	3.913	0.004
19	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	16	1'25.324	3.977	0.064
20	Rio Haryanto	Manor	Mercedes	23	1'27.012	5.665	1.688
21	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	9	1'27.249	5.902	0.237
22	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	6	1'28.560	7.213	1.311