Defending three-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel led a Red Bull Racing 1-2 in both timed sessions of Friday practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix at Hungaroring near Budapest today.
The German, who is fresh from a victory at his home event at the Nurburgring, was trailed by Australian teammate Mark Webber in both sessions as Ferrari and Lotus looked the closest to getting the better of the duo over both a single lap and in race simulations.
Track temperatures at the narrow and twisty circuit soared, reaching as high as 46 degrees Celsius, as teams had trouble-free running with no complaints regarding the performance of the Pirelli tyres.
Temperatures are expected to go even higher at the first 'Iron Curtain' F1 racetrack, with the track even being expected to hit the 50 degree Celsius mark for qualifying.
With the soft and medium compound tyres available for teams following the Young Driver Test at Silverstone Mercedes - normally a factor when it comes to single lap pace - struggled with performance on their tyres after having been banned from the test.
The 'Silver Arrows' that have been dominant in qualifying recently have admitted to being at a disadvantage for the last F1 race weekend prior to the championship's summer break.
Red Bull, however, looked ominously fast during their race simulations, with Vettel managing to set times over half a second a lap faster than Fernando Alonso's Ferrari on a comparable simulation.
Lotus, meanwhile, was nearly a second off the pace although even on heavy fuel runs the fuel loads could not be accurately compared to one another.
However, Kimi Raikkonen's attempt to set a fast time on his first soft tyre run was impeded twice in a row by Jenson Button's McLaren, who was on a race simulation.
Raikkonen's true qualifying pace, which can only be seen on Saturday, will likely be one of the factors to determine whether Red Bull run away on Sunday or are given a fight.
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