The McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are expecting a difficult weekend as they trailed front-runners Red Bull, by over a second in second practice on Friday.
Hamilton, who won here in 2009, believes his current car is the best he’s driven at the circuit, despite having finished sixth and over 1.2 second behind Sebastian Vettel today.
“The car was the best I’ve ever driven around here – it felt really great through the corners,” he declared.
Nonetheless, he believes there is still a few tenths to extract in third practice on Saturday.
“We’re dialing-in the set-up pretty effectively,” he continued, “but there’s still maybe a few tenths to come.
“But, even so, we’re losing quite a bit of time in the middle sector, and a couple of tenths in the first and third sectors, too. And then, as you start to push harder, in order to close the gap to the guys in front, the car begins to feel like it’s a little bit on the ragged edge.”
Team-mate, Button, had a more downbeat forecast for the weekend, admitting that the Woking based outfit is unlikely to close the gap between themselves, Ferrari and Red Bull.
“We’re a little bit behind the Red Bulls and the Ferraris,” he said.
“It’s probably therefore going to be a tricky weekend for us. There are still areas where we can improve, which is positive, but we’re unlikely to close the gap completely here in Hungary.”
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