Free Practice III

Felipe Massa finished the last practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix as the quickest driver for Ferrari with a 1:20.183s. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren were around two tenths behind in second and third. Nick Heidfeld muscled out the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen to come fourth fastest.



Nico Rosberg of Williams was sixth ahead of the Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. Red Bull's Mark Webber and Alex Wurz completed the top ten in the warm and dry conditions. The first half was mostly uneventful with several drivers still struggling to find the optimum set-up on the slippery track - Adrian Sutil, Jarno Trulli and Heidfeld all having off moments as Kubica complained of tyre graining again over the radio, saying there was "no grip". Hamilton was fastest with a high 1:20 but only just to Raikkonen and Alonso, who still needed to find a tenth of a second to match the young Brit. The Finn duly did and went top by a mere 0.023s. With 20 minutes remaining the McLaren drivers showed that the track conditions were improving - Alonso with a 1:20.414s and Hamilton with a 1:20.576s. The anonymous Massa took this on board to carve out a low 1:20 and clear the McLaren pair. The Toyotas were beating the BMW Saubers to best of the rest with Schumacher and Trulli anchored around the 1:21 mark in fifth and sixth - Kubica was particularly struggling with grip still and down in 13th. Sakon Yamamoto deserves mentioning at this point for having set a very respectable 1:24.062s and was just two tenths slower than Adrian Sutil after the same amount of laps. The last five minutes however prompted a mass exodus. Heidfeld jumped ahead of Raikkonen for fourth but Kubica seemed to be struggling to get into the 1:20s unlike most of the top ten.

Result:

1. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:20.183

2. Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:20.414 +0.231

3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:20.461 +0.278

4. Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:20.565 +0.382

5. Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.741 +0.558

6. Nico Rosberg Williams 1:20.868 +0.685

7. Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:20.878 +0.695

8. Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:20.933 +0.750

9. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:21.220 +1.037

10. Alexander Wurz Williams 1:21.323 +1.140

11. Anthony Davidson Super Aguri 1:21.501 +1.318

12. Robert Kubica BMW 1:21.652 +1.469

13. Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:21.666 +1.483

14. David Coulthard Red Bull 1:21.752 +1.569

15. Takuma Sato Super Aguri 1:21.839 +1.656

16. Vitantonio Liuzzi STR 1:21.909 +1.726

17. Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:22.131 +1.948

18. Jenson Button Honda 1:22.202 +2.019

19. Sebastian Vettel STR 1:22.394 +2.211

20. Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:22.596 +2.413

21. Adrian Sutil Spyker 1:23.560 +3.377

22. Sakon Yamamoto Spyker 1:24.062 +3.879