Budapest (AFP) – Lewis Hamilton continued his mid-season surge of form on Friday when he topped the times ahead of his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg in opening free practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The 31-year-old Briton carried on at the twisty Hungaroring where he had left off on the sweeping curves of Silverstone where he won the British Grand Prix, outpacing the German by more than two-tenths of a second.
Hamilton clocked a best lap in one minute and 21.347 seconds as he revelled in his speed on one of his favourite tracks, where he is seeking a record fifth win and a current hat-trick of straight wins.
Rosberg, who had signed a new two-year contract with the team earlier on Friday, swapped fastest laps with him through the session.
Rosberg leads Hamilton by one point in the championship ahead of the 11th race of the 21-race season.
The two Mercedes men were a full 1.6 seconds clear of third-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, the four-time champion winding up ahead of his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were fifth and sixth, but both men chose not to use any of their supply of the super-soft tyres.
After a damp and humid start, the circuit dried out and the sun rose to produce much of the expected heat at the tight and dusty track 20 kms north-east of Budapest.
The McLaren team enjoyed the conditions that reduce the advantage of the Mercedes-powered teams and, despite spins, two-time champion Fernando Alonso and 2009 champion Jenson Button were seventh and eighth.
Frenchman Romain Grosjean was ninth Haas and Mexican Sergio Perez 10th for Force India.
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