Red Bull Racing firmly laid the gauntlet down to its rivals, as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber dominated the opening practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Although Webber had led the way for most of the session, it was Vettel who would eventually secure top honours with a time only a tenth faster.
The German may well have gone even faster, but found that his final two laps were spoiled thanks to traffic and driver error.
Third-placed Robert Kubica (Renault) was over a second adrift of the leader’s time, but found himself with 0.4 of a second in hand over Jenson Button in fourth – the latter having waited until the hour mark before emerging in his McLaren.
Lewis Hamilton, however, had a disappointing session and could only set the eighteenth fastest time.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was seventh, with Felipe Massa, returning to the scene of last year’s life-threatening accident, was twelfth.
The session passed without too much drama, with a spin from Renault’s Vitaly Petrov the only cause for concern.
With Red Bull’s pace looking ominous for the rest of the weekend, its rivals better hope that they can improve in this afternoon’s session.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:20.976 29 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:21.106 + 0.130 27 3. Kubica Renault 1:22.072 + 1.096 21 4. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.444 + 1.468 17 5. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:22.601 + 1.625 25 6. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:22.764 + 1.788 24 7. Alonso Ferrari 1:22.772 + 1.796 25 8. Rosberg Mercedes 1:22.777 + 1.801 25 9. Schumacher Mercedes 1:22.792 + 1.816 26 10. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:22.966 + 1.990 25 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:23.003 + 2.027 19 12. Massa Ferrari 1:23.007 + 2.031 26 13. Petrov Renault 1:23.249 + 2.273 24 14. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:23.327 + 2.351 23 15. di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:23.520 + 2.544 19 16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.780 + 2.804 22 17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.868 + 2.892 28 18. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.075 + 3.099 15 19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:25.032 + 4.056 22 20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:25.210 + 4.234 23 21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:25.990 + 5.014 21 22. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:26.686 + 5.710 17 23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:26.990 + 6.014 34 24. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:28.157 + 7.181 24
