Nico Rosberg has signed a contract extension that will keep him at Formula One’s powerhouse Mercedes until the end of 2018.
Advertisement
“I watched the rest of the session, so I know how [Rosberg’s] run went, so I don’t need to study it tonight”.
In a dominant day for the Silver Arrows, Rosberg’s teammate Lewis Hamilton finished top of the times during FP1, but suffered a blunder in the second session when he slid off the Hungaroring into the barrier, ending his session.
With his contract due to expire at the end of the year, Rosberg chose to carry on as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate until at least 2018, basically confirming that Mercedes, along with Ferrari and Red Bull, have managed to retain their current line-up of drivers for the following year. “That was always going to be a positive boost”.
“I think we’re way past the tipping point”, Symonds said.
His best effort of one minute and 20.435 seconds, at a track where he has previously failed to secure a podium finish, was comfortably quicker than the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
The defending three-time world champion, who hit the barriers after only 14 minutes of the 90-minute second session on Friday afternoon, said his auto was sent into a half-spin after clipping the kerbs.
He was able to re-start and drive gingerly back to the pits, but after an inspection the team chose to strip his auto down.
Sebastian Vettel, who won the race a year ago, was third in his Ferrari ahead of Verstappen. Once again, Fernando Alonso was the faster of the two drivers by 0.059, but more importantly for the team he was over a tenth clear of Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India in ninth.
“On the one hand you can say that we can lose both drivers at the same time, but on second thoughts it as an interesting possibility that opens up several options for us. It’s a short track so normally the gap would close down to our competitors but today it has been quite big, so it’s really looking good”.
Advertisement
And having cut Rosberg’s championship lead to just one point from 43 in the last five races, Hamilton is determined to leave Hungary ahead his team-mate in the title race.
