Kimi Raikkonen leads Wednesday morning F1 test session in Hungary

Kimi Raikkonen kept Ferrari on top of the timesheets as he set the quickest time on Wednesday morning during Formula 1 testing at a hot and dry Hungaroring.

Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi headed both sessions on Tuesday and Raikkonen vaulted to the front early on, before working his way down to a 1:16.171, as he also finished with the most laps under his belt, amassing 69, one short of a full race distance.

Raikkonen’s best lap left him 2.280s quicker than Williams’ Robert Kubica, who returned to action aboard the FW41, a year on from his return to the paddock with Renault.

Lando Norris continued testing duties in his role as McLaren’s reserve driver and finished third, three-tenths behind Kubica, and held a similar gap over Sean Gelael.

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Gelael switched from the Pirelli-run Toro Rosso STR13 over to the car entered by the team itself, with Brendon Hartley taking over tyre testing duties.

Mercedes-backed Formula 2 title leader George Russell was fifth, while Tuesday pacesetter Giovinazzi switched to Sauber’s C37 and placed sixth.

GP3 race winner Nikita Mazepin caused the only red flag of the four-hour session when his Force India VJM11 stopped at Turn 11, and he finished seventh on the leaderboard.

Renault test and development driver Artem Markelov had his first experience in a current-spec Formula 1 car and placed eighth, in front of Red Bull simulator driver Jake Dennis.

Tyre tester Hartley rounded out the field; Haas is not present at this week’s test.

Formula 1 testing will resume for a further four hours at 14:00 local time.