Five days after the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Formula One was back in action today with the first two practice sessions taking place at the Hungaroring in Budapest ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

With their MGP W01 cars running with a revised aerodynamic package for this race, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg concentrated on developing the set-up and balance, with a particular focus on race preparation.

Michael completed 57 laps and finished the day in 10th position with Nico covering 53 laps in 13th place.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
 

“Today we saw two sessions where neither the long runs nor the single laps were looking particularly good. We are not up to the speed that we normally are on Fridays and unfortunately our car does not look very good here at the moment. We have to look deeply into the data now to see if there are any specific reasons or if it is due to the character of the circuit. I think our specification is better than we had at Silverstone but we have to make it suit this track. We obviously hope for a better performance tomorrow and Sunday.”

NICO ROSBERG
 

“It was an interesting day and even though we have taken a small step back with our upgrades, the car seems to work as it should. The track was unexpectedly fast so we had to do some different things with the set-up just to get a feel for it. My lap time wasn’t particularly representative as I didn’t set a time because of the traffic so I think we look to be in our general position behind the frontrunners at the moment. ”

ROSS BRAWN
 

“We had a busy day working with our revised aero package to find the right direction for qualifying and particularly the race. Both drivers completed some good set-up work but Nico and particularly Michael are not completely happy with our position at the end of today. We have a fairly clear picture of where we expect the prime and option tyres to be positioned for qualifying and the race but we have a lot of work ahead this evening to improve the cars for tomorrow.”

NORBERT HAUG
 

“Not a perfect first day of practice for us and there is certainly still work to be done tonight in order to improve the set-up of our cars. If the forecast is correct for tomorrow, there is a chance of thunderstorms around lunchtime which could possibly create an exiting qualifying session.”

Mark Yates (Fraggle), Assistant Front Wing Technician

Thursday, Race Week

Our Thursday starts with a 7.50am alarm call and breakfast at the hotel before heading into the track. We’re lucky this week as we’re staying at the Intercontinental in the centre of Budapest which is a great hotel right by the river and it also does a great breakfast buffet! The track is about 30 minutes drive and it’s a nice sunny day for the first time since we arrived straight from Germany on Monday.

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Matt Deane is our team’s Chief Mechanic and following the German Grand Prix on Sunday, which saw the team record the two quickest pit stops of the weekend, we had a chat to him about how his guys get so good…

Q. We achieved the two quickest pit stops at Hockenheim last weekend. What would you put that speed down to?

During each race weekend, the team completes over 60 pit stop practices from Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning. We always try to do at least 4 stops in a row under 3 seconds during each pit stop practice. [...]

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The third set of the 2010 season’s back-to-back races continues this weekend in Budapest with the Hungarian Grand Prix just one week after the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Taking place at the Hungaroring, located 19kms from the capital, the circuit has hosted the race since 1986 and is one of the most technically demanding on the calendar.

NICO ROSBERG
 

“Budapest is a great city and the atmosphere there and at the track over the race weekend is very vibrant so I always enjoy visiting. The Hungaroring is one of those tracks that provides a real technical challenge and it is good fun to drive. Overtaking is difficult there so qualifying is really important and you need to start from as high up the grid as possible. Qualifying hasn’t been our strong point recently so we will be working hard on our preparations over the weekend to give us the best chance in the race. I had a strong weekend in Hungary last year, finishing in fourth place, and it would be nice to be competing towards the front again this time around.”

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
 

“The German Grand Prix last weekend was clearly disappointing for us but we have seen a variety of performances from our team over the past few races. With this in mind, I will still go to Hungary with a positive feeling. It is clear that we need to understand our car better, and the track in Budapest plus more time to evaluate our upgrades should help us in that respect. As I said after the last race, we have to remain calm, look into all the details and analyse our performance in order to learn as much as possible from such weekends. That is the way we have to go in order to improve our situation which may already be possible this coming weekend in Hungary.”
 

ROSS BRAWN
 

“The Hungarian Grand Prix will be the conclusion to an extremely busy period for the team following two of our home races taking place this month at Silverstone and Hockenheim. The last race weekend in Germany was challenging for us, particularly following the podium finish at Silverstone, and we were disappointed not to be competing further up the field. The team is doing a good job operationally but we need to find more pace from the car and we continue to work very hard to achieve this. Hungary is a technically demanding circuit and should be a good proving ground for our latest upgrades, providing further invaluable track testing time, as we work to find the optimum set-up. Our two-week factory shutdown just after the race will be a well-deserved rest for our employees and the chance to recharge their batteries before the busy final third of the season.”

NORBERT HAUG
 

“The Hungaroring circuit near Budapest is very different to that of the last race in Germany with a slow and twisty layout requiring maximum downforce. One weekend after the home race of Mercedes-Benz, our team wants to achieve a better result than we managed at the Hockenheimring.”